What's in it for Me(n)?

About a week or so ago, msn.com featured a little article: "Marriage, and What's in it for Men?" It begged the question "Should men get married?", and if so, "why?", along with all sorts of conjecturing about the subject.

I thought about it for a bit and decided that since the feature allowed you to post an opinion at the end, well... I just couldn't resist.

Anyone reading is certainly welcome to chime in, but here were my thoughts as articulated on that particular day:
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In this day and age there really is absolutely NO justifiable reason for a sane, healthy, rationally thinking man to get married. Period.

For certain, while love and commitment are noble concepts... for most people those things become designates only of the MOUTH, whereas true love is not a 'mouth' word at all - it is a 'foot' word.

You don't 'say' love... you 'do' love. You don’t ‘say’ commitment… you ‘live’ commitment – on a day-to-day, moment-by-moment basis. And sadly, most people just do not possess the emotional maturity or wherewithal necessary to grasp this.

You see, no matter how well either of the “Happy Couple’ mean on the 'big day', the 'foam' subsides and eventually bubbles right on down to the 'coke'. And what most people miss is that it’s not until that point that you are able to experience one of the most beautiful phases of any relationship: the plain old day-to-day business of just living together.

But again, too bad most people just don't have what it takes with regard to the emotional or intellectual maturity to manage that.

So... Enter The Lawyers!

For men considering marriage, the bottom line is simply and sadly this: that almost any court.......will allow almost any woman........ for almost any reason........ to utterly SMASH a man in a divorce. Period.

And certainly, I can almost hear the howling cries of the incurable romantics now – they will side with true love... ".... you're so jaded and shallow...", and they will side with this noble, revered institution called marriage at all costs – and for a man those costs can be devastating.

But men no longer have the luxury of thinking like an incurable romantic as they once did. Men must now think as Gen. Norman Schwartzkopf when he said: ".... you cannot prepare for your enemy's 'intentions' ..... you must prepare for their capabilities."

And until that changes, the best way to prepare for such an eventuality, would be to stay as far away from the altar as humanly possible.
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(A few days after I set these notes down I shared them with a friend who asked if I thought I'd ever get married again.


I responded without hesitation: "Why, hell yes... of course I would!"