Hello, Stephen—Thank you for reading what I’ve written though we may have different perspectives. I think that’s what’s cool about writing here on Medium—people with different views get to probe each other’s beliefs to learn what they’re thinking without saying ‘you’re wrong’ to believe what you believe.

I definitely don’t take into account the history of marriage when deciding whether or not I’m interested in marrying again. From what you’ve written it sounds like that at some point in the past, marriage was a means for exchanging property and wealth. If that was the requirement for me today, I’d likely be less interested in marriage

You asked, “why do you need marriage to have a happy, healthy relationship?” That makes me think that I – unintentionally – wrote something in such a way that I didn’t make this clear: I do not believe that marriage is needed to have a happy, healthy relationship. For sure, plenty of people can have happy, healthy relationships without marriage.

I’ll warn you—I suck at analogies, but I’m sort of fleshing out my thoughts on this, so please bear with me. It’s sort of like…you can absolutely travel from point A to point B with a bunch of different kinds of vehicle—a pick-up truck, a sports car, a 4-car sedan. It really just comes down to which form you prefer, and, perhaps, what you’re willing to do in order to have that kind of vehicle that you prefer.

If you prefer your happy, healthy relationship to be in the form of LTR or marriage or partnership, then, to me, what matters is that you are happy and healthy, that you do get from point A to point B in the form you prefer.

Maybe what matters, too, is that I don’t try to force someone get a cross-over SUV because that’s what I like, and that I not let myself be forced to get a sports car because that’s what he prefers.

Maybe…if I prefer a truck, I’d be happier and healthier if I find someone who is happy to ride in that truck with me instead of trying to convince him that his hatchback is bad because once upon a time hatchbacks were used to transport explosives that blew up a city and that other people think hatchbacks are just a legal way for government or society’s way of controlling him. Man, if we both feel happy and healthy riding in trucks, let’s drive around in a truck. If we’re both happy and healthy riding in hatchbacks, let’s ride in hatchbacks.

Ok, I warned you that my analogies sucked…but thank you for writing me. You helped me think through this topic a bit more!