Hi, I am new here, although not new to the writings of Pirsig, or the discussion of Quality. A quick introduction; My name is Louise (I also go by Lu), I'm a wife, a mother of 4, and an artist. My husbands' views of life were shaped in a large part by Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenace, and he read it out loud to me during the first few months of our marriage. It's not a book I would have made it though alone, as I was young and fairly vacuous at the time. But the refferences to it, and discussion of it, continue 20 years later.
I'm not usually one to quickly jump in to a discussion uninvited, but this subject is one that, in my opinion, people are arguing about from the wrong direction. Marriage - In a world where couples live together until they decide they want to have a party, get married for fun, then call it quits when things get tough, or boring, or marriage no longer matches the decor - where does the desire come from for anyone to want to marry? And why not let just anyone do it, since any heterosexual idiot can? A sacred union, or simply a legal arrangement? Marriage is much more important than it is taken in our culture - not so much for the couple as for the the resulting children. They are the only ones who have no choice what kind of family (or lack thereof) they are born (or adopted) into. In my opinion the rules for who can get married should be much stricter than they are. Make it so people have to jump thru' a bunch of hoops, tests, requirements, etc.., and then also make it much more difficult to dissolve the union - then I say let ANYONE - who can fulfill the requirements - get married. Thank you for allowing me to express this oppinion, and also to join your discussion. Lu On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 1:17 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > > > [Craig, previously] > > But there is also > > the motive of preserving an already existing institution. > > [Arlo] > > the same argument could've been made (and > > was made) against "inter-race marriage". > > > > But inter-racial marriage has existed for thousands of years > throughout the world. Generally, gay marriage as an insitution > is very recent. Also only particular combinations of races > were prevented from marrying. > > > > [Arlo] > > People argued that allowing mixed-race > > marriages would destroy the institution of marriage. > > > > In fact, this was almost never the argument. > > The fear was that mixed-race children would be the > > result of the marriage. > > Those who oppose gay or mixed-race marriage are > also fearful that the marriages will be strong, > because that will encourage others. > > > [Arlo] > > Here's a strange case, and its always (for me) the oddities that define > the > > situation clearer than the un-odd. > > "Hard cases make bad law." > > [Arlo] > > True story from Maury, a transgender's "wife" decides to stick by > "her"...Are they still married? > > > Don't know, I missed the ending of that show. > Craig > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ > Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
