by Desiree Gordon

Created on: January 15, 2010

From the dawn of time, marriage has been viewed as the final step in insuring that one will live a fulfilled life. For men, it was easier to remain unmarried for however long they choose to remain bachelors; however, the same sentiment was not always mirrored for women who remained single, they were referred to as spinsters.

Fast forwarding to the today, where marriage is no longer viewed as necessary and the thought of devoting one’s self to just one other person, is not very desirable what with the popular saying “many fish in the sea” still alive and well.

People are most interested in dating than proposing and having one night stands instead walking down the aisle. Our society is bombarded with images that bring forth sexual connotations instead of the element of love and devotion with very little that depict the joy of being in a relationship.

Aside from what society suggests (because like many would say we make up society, society isn’t a separate being) many are getting married for all the wrong reasons. For the most part love plays a back seat to the needs of what people are now interested in. With the economy in the state that it is in, the thing that everyone wants is green and weighs as much as a feather, money. Some people are most interested in having stability in a person instead of actual love. Some believe that love can come much later if need be.

Other factors may involve the rush factor. There are couples who are deciding to get married after knowing each other for one month and sometimes even less. Take basketball player Lamar Odom and his new wife Khloe Kardashian for example. The two lovebirds have only been acquainted for the length of a rent payment and they decided to jump the broom.

There is more stress and challenges that loom over our reality today that also play big roles in married couples calling it quits. Marriage is nothing like it appears on TV. There aren’t always happy days and days that are stress-free. The household make-up no longer consists of the wife staying home and up keeping the house and the husband being the sole provider of the household. Women are working and love doing it, so much so that most are giving birth to their first child in their late 30’s.

Surely, this has an effect on the marriage as both parties choose to focus the energy that it takes to make a marriage work, and pour it into their careers.

There are many factors that contribute to the influx of marriages that are ending in divorce. All of it boils down to couples no longer having the patience or motivation in remaining an item and giving up on relationships they once loved.

It takes work, sacrifice and commitment to make a marriage work, and those who are not built for it fall to the wayside.

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