[valkyrie]

I think this is a good question, although I don't really have an answer. The more I think about it, the more I think that there really is no purpose of marriage other than what each individual gives it.

Most people (and feel free to disagree) get married for one of three reasons -- (1) based on religion, they feel it's the right thing to do; (2) they want to have children and feel that marriage is the appropriate environment for that; or (3) it's just what you do.

Once you strip away all the traditional/religious aspects surrounding marriage, I think that it's really just something that makes people feel better about themselves. What it really does is attempt to keep people together, which isn't always a good thing -- if I'm with a guy for years and we're in love, that's great, and we don't need marriage at all because we're happy and we're together because we want to be. If we decide that we're no longer happy, marriage keeps us from splitting up without what could be a long, difficult legal battle. I don't think that's a good thing -- if Mr. valkyrie woke up tomorrow and decided he didn't want to be with me any more, he should be free to leave without the goverment having to be involved.