by Mark Mahon

Created on: August 26, 2009

It is ironic for me that dependent on the size of the dictionary, when you look up the word 'marriage' it is only one more turn of a page or so to discover the word 'materialist'. Even the current definition of the word 'marriage' is absorbed in describing the legalities and economics of the union of a couple. I like to reflect on reasons that couples would have initially needed to come together and commit to possibly being together for the rest of their time.

It would not require an academic to undertake a thesis to discover that a human male and a human female can have an unyielding need to combine in a union that will lead to the continuance their physical existence. A human child takes a very long time to develop into a mature adult. It cannot hit the ground running like a giraffe; it cannot even toddle for about twelve months. Although parts of our society are currently in denial and blindly advocating in self-satisfying platitude that a child does not require a loving nurturing committed biological mother and father to develop properly, primal instinct dwells in the majority of us headlining the knowledge that having a biological mother and father 'needing to nurture' is the preferred option for a child.

During mating season, Emperor Penguins bustle shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of thousands of other penguins until they find their regular mate. There is a plethora of opposite sex options to fulfill the function of reproduction yet they press on until they find 'their' mate. I see the sacredness of marriage in that endeavour. Due to the longevity of the need to nurture a human child, I believe that initially, a human bustled for the same sacredness. As time went on, factions of society branched off and set up increasingly complicated systems to sabotage the facilitation of such a simple process. Authoritative bodies began to dictate to the individual how their spiritual flames should flicker, and it has evolved now to a situation where the flame appears to constantly extinguish, many cannot even identify the glow within them. It could be that the understanding of the reason for seeking and finding a life partner has been dissolved in the sludge of the struggle to exist in the barrage of being 'advised' on how to exist.

Technology now enables a relentless onslaught of communication through the media, the Internet, mobile phones, education and a myriad of community gatherings whether religious based or not. This assault has practically made it impossible

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