Renata,

This is a great piece. Expertly written, as all your pieces are, concise, well-researched, and well-thought out.

Most of this is top-notch.

I do have some criticisms, however, especially from my perspective.

What you're describing is an assault on the "escalator" relationship, when you say that "marraiage is the first piece in the domino row of love. As it falls, it brings the other pieces down with it,"

I think you mean on a societal level we're doing away with the institution.

But not everyone got married then just like not everyone gets married now. And a relationship like mine, where children and marriage are both off the table 100%, shows that marriage and children aren't necesary for long-term commitment and love.

My friend Eli and I have been hanging out since I was a child. When he told me his parents weren't married (or religious), I looked at him like he just grew two heads. I'd never heard such a thing before. But it was inspirational. Two people, now in their 70s and 80s, who didn't need a governnment-signed document to show the world how much they loved one another—they proved it with their actions.

Especially for us non-religious people, marriage is an archaic institution dreamt up in the bronze age. It serves no function or purpose, especially to those of us who do not want to have children.

The problem of the sexes and relationships today is one of individualism. Society used to be a whole lot more collectivist than it is today. Group think was a major thing back then. The Baby Boomer generation changed this all in the radical 1960s, as we've discussed. So, this is the other side of the individualist (and capitalist) coin. It's lonely, confusing, and isolating.