Is marriage pointless?
I read an interesting statistic yesterday in, of all places, the new Chuck Klosterman book Chuck Klosterman IV. In 1900, the average life expectancy was 40 something and the average marriage lasted 12 years. Today, the average life expectancy is 77, while the average marriage only lasts 7 years.
I'm beginning to wonder what's the point of even bothering, other than coercing your parents to buy you an all expenses paid week-long trip to Hawaii with some broad who's just dripping to wet your dock, so to speak. Admittedly, this would almost be worth ruining your life for a nice long period of time.
But most marriages eventually end sooner than later; and of the one's that don't, I imagine a lot of them should as well. Could it be the case that marriage is one of these ideas that has outlived its own utility? Maybe in the past you were genuinely better off, but today you're probably just setting yourself up.
Statitistics show that people who are married tend to outlive people who aren't, but these studies pointlessly juxtapose Ned Flanders types with guys who live in wet cardboard boxes and go around at night draining radiator fluid from people's cars for a cheap high. I can't imagine that a guy who wasn't married, but lived reasonably well, would be especially worse off than your average married man.
Indeed the people who seem to be most fucked up, statistically speaking, are people who used to be married and aren't anymore, either because their spouse was eaten by a jaguar or, more often than not, developed an attitude problem. By getting married in the first place, aren't you just increasing the chances that you'll end up that guy who was at the strip club pretty much every time you've been there since 1999?
In case you haven't heard, Whitney Houston recently filed for divorce from the last great R&B singer, Bobby Brown. Both reports I've read note that she was recently seen at an award show or some such with Clive Davis, which would suggest to me that the TIs are ordering her to finally drop Bobby if she wants any more advance money.
Does it surprise me that Whitney would do something like this? Not really. Here's hoping someone slips her a "hot" dose.
Peep: Whitney's prerogative: Leaving Bobby Brown [CNN]
