On Marriage

144 words

Months ago I wrote the sentence ‘Every marriage creates its own form of insanity,’ but every time I tried to expand on the joyful or useful or depraved varieties of this madness, I gave up.

I’ve married, divorced, turned down a proposal, and married again, so I’d like to think I know something about the nature and potential of this commitment, but I probably know nothing.

Selection from Auguste Toulmouche’s La Fiancée Hésitante

What’s more— I’ve just read the last essay I might ever read on this topic, written by someone not unlike myself, someone carrying an intense curiosity about the endurance and failure and mysteries of marriage, someone ready to make bold assertions on the topic, and someone who, like me, struggled to defend those assertions.

So it became clear. The perspective on marriage I’d most like to know belongs to a spouse who would never dare to reveal it.

---

The above essay is 144 words, a part of a series explained over here.