I share your view, Patagonia. I don't disbelieve in marriage, or the idea of finding the right person that you want to be with for the remainder of your life, but I do feel this ideal is superimposed on us. And when we can no longer keep up the facade, and take the plunge to separate, we end up feeling guilty, or like we've failed in the eyes of society, because we didn't snag our forever mate.

Nature is a lot more chaotic than the rules we've all collectively agreed on about matehood. Again, I am NOT slamming anyone who chooses to stay with their spouse until the end, or keep searching for their soulmate. I just feel a lot of people would benefit from shifting their perspective on the whole endeavor. Maybe you do find a person who enriches your entire life, up to the end; maybe you don't. Maybe someone enriches you for a while, and then it ceases. Maybe it never happens. But these outcomes don't deserve the social stigma that's been built around them.