Legal Shacking

It has recently occurred to me that many legal marriages today equate to nothing more than legal shacking. For those of you who've never heard the term "shacking", it's also called living in sin...basically, living together without the benefit of marriage.

Now shacking is frowned upon by most religious folk. But it's not only the religious who condemn it. Many who've never stepped foot in a church or who rarely, if ever, open the pages of a holy book believe shacking to be immoral, unstable and outright stupid, especially for women.

For the record, I don't believe in shacking either. Despite my feelings about legal marriage, I hope I've expressed here that I'm not anti-marriage, but exactly the opposite. I'm for true, biblical marriage without unnecessary permission or approval from state government.

However, it appears to me that many people who have gotten married have only done so to legalize their shacking. Some of the very couples I've blogged about here hold a very loose interpretation of the institution of marriage. Because their interpretation so clearly embraces the idea of divorce and remarriage ad infinitum, it appears that marriage to some of them is nothing more than a legal way of shacking. When things get tired, when rough times hit or when something better comes along, they're out and on to the next. For some, I truly believe, they obtain a legal marriage for the sole purpose of social acceptance, but not with the idea of being with that person...no matter what...until the end of their lives. Marriage, today, is quite temporary, in fact. So temporary that some have coined the phrase "starter marriage" or "starter wife" for one's first time plunge. The idea being that this may be the first, but definitely not the last.

Funny flashback moment here: When I was about 10, my mother called me in the house for a sit down after overhearing me telling my friends I planned on marrying at least 7 times just like Zsa Zsa Gabor (who I have no idea how many she's actually had, but that was a good number for me at the time, lol). My mom tried to explain to me that marriage was for life (this was after her divorce from my father and before her remarriage and eventual divorce from my step-father) and I pretended to listen and believe. However, until well into my 20's, I still believed that I would have multiple husbands. Meeting Mr. Free changed all of that, thankfully, and I've only had one husband and only plan to have one as long as we are both alive.

But, back to my point...

While so many frown upon marriage, real marriage, without a license, these same will embrace couples who have multiple marriages between them. Even the ones where it's a slim chance they'll even remain with their current spouses. These people are applauded while people who have vowed a lifetime together and are living it, but have no certificate, are shunned for so-called "shacking" (when they're actually married). Legal marriage is the thing to do, but with no long-term plans, or tools, for survival, many, unfortunately, amount to nothing more than legal shacking.

Me thinks we have a lot of this marriage and shacking stuff completely bass ackwards!

Just my opinion folks...

~Free