Is this just a cute little tyke or something more insidious and sinister?

Shotgun Wedding?

So I've been in a little funk lately. Everyone is birthing their progeny left and right...And blogging the hell out of every little poop, fart, and spittle episode the larval forms have. I'm not complaining; it's their right as proud parents to "ooh" and "aah" over the early motor skills development of their children (especially the mothers that had to carry them around for nine months). This was what sparked my whole mood that our current society is so focused on the importance on marriage and procreation that if you aren't in a relationship, married, and/or with child...you are considered outside the norm.

From a historical point of view, marriage for love is a recent development. In most cases, marriage was used to gain political and/or monetary power between different families. Since these unions were for the benefit of the families, it needed to be recognized by some authority to provide some sort of societal validation of said unions. Monarchies and governments come and go. Organized religion, on the other hand, has the tenacity of sticking around even with the assorted plague/war/revolution. So religions put attach their moral value structures on top of these "business" transactions, making them a solemn oath under the auspices of the specific deity.

Today, the whole concept of marrying for "love" is a thin veneer on a socio/political issue that creates divisions between various groups and sub-cultures. Religious conservatives state marriage is the proper union between a man and a woman; anything else is an attack on the moral fabric of society. Same sex couples decry this as hypocrisy. They site that a significant of marriages between heterosexual couples end in divorce. The conservative right comes back and says that same-sex couples endanger the upbringing of children. Almost every study shows the opposite. As long a children are raised by loving parents (regardless if they are same-sex couple or not), they will grow up well adjusted. I think the best quote I saw for gay marriage was that they wanted to be able to make the same "mistakes" as everyone else.

Some day I'd love the chance to get married to my future husband like my straight friends...don't get me wrong. But what really irks me is that political parties are using this "morality" issue to hide larger and far more serious issues that need our immediate attention. What are they? I don't know...perhaps a world-wide deterioration of the climate or a particularly nasty conflict (it was never a war) that we had no right in instigating. I think making sure that the earth can support life (just not the cockroaches and Cher) and everyone has a full belly and access to medical care is more a priority than getting some tax breaks.