Page 50 - Advanced Romance

Advanced Romance* 47
chance of having a friendship with your ex.
If this fundamentalism is challenged successfully,
then the next question may be, how long must a relationship last before it’s considered successful? How many years must the relationship last for you to be considered as having given it a good try, rather than being considered a sick pervert, a heartless exploitive player, or pagan sinner? Fifty years? A score of years? Decade? Five? One?
There is fairly extensive literature exploring the breakup phenomena and what it means, and we will return to it later. Suffice it to say that if contracting parties had to rely on a fifty percent performance rate in business, the economic engines of the world would slow way down—if go at all. But lately American society has put this amount of pressure on the contract of marriage. There is a fifty percent chance the marriage contract will not last. Yet it’s still one of the most popular American contracts. Thus, we may need to change the contract,
at least after you’ve divorced several times. The new contract might say you’ll stay married as long as it’s nourishing both parties, and if it fails, you’re going to be as compassionate to each other as possible.
VIII. Similar to the failure idea is the fundamentalism that insists that if you’re serious about someone you must marry them, or be monogamous with them for the rest of your life.