Marriage is the process by which two people
make their relationship public, official, and permanent. It is the joining of
two people in a bond that putatively lasts until death.
Every marriage brings challenges, often
profound ones. How a couple manages them often determines whether their
relationship collapses or holds firm. Guarding long-term love may require
jettisoning misguided beliefs or dysfunctional habits that partners have
carried with them for many years.What enables a couple to endure is how they
handle that conflict. Over the course of a relationship that can last many as
seven or eight decades, a lot happens. Personalities change, bodies age, and
romantic love waxes and wanes. And no marriage is free of conflict.
The choice of spouse is among the most
important personal decisions most people ever make. While we can’t see into our
romantic futures, the science of relationships does offer insight into the
decision process.Exploring these findings can help suggest when the time is
right, what partners should know in advance, what matters most in weighing the
decision, and why we are drawn to the type of person we might spend the rest of
our life with.
But whether or not marriage makes sense
ultimately depends on the characteristics of the individuals it would formally
unite.