[Ammi]

...hmmmm, no I don't get that it has lost it's meaning...my marriage/my children are my entire meaning in life so it hasn't lost it's meaning to me...Vicky has said that she's getting married soon, she doesn't have to get married, she has a great guy/two beautiful children..getting married isn't something that she has to do but it's something that she and her partner want to do, they want to do it because it has meaning to them..?..Anniek, another member, has recently got married, she has a beautiful son, a great partner etc...nothing could add to that/change it..?..but they married because doing so had great meaning, Lee, another member etc got married a few years ago...marriage has great meaning, as much as it has ever done to the people that it has great meaning to...actually, I think that it has more meaning now than it ever has just because we're in a time when people don't have to be married, there isn't the same stigma to not being married but being with someone and having children etc...my son and his partner, they also 'have it all' really..they have everything without 'that certificate', it won't bring them anything that they haven't got but they want to be married because it isn't just a certificate/a piece of paper to them...because it has meaning to them...my parents were married for many years because it had meaning...homosexuality only a short while ago really, was illegal ...but now homosexual marriage is legal, it's been fought to be legal/struggled for and prejudiced against etc to be legal...why would that be, why would that piece of paper be so important if didn't have meaning...

...we live in times unlike 'back in the day' when marriage isn't necessary to relationships, to an 'acceptance in society' and that's a great thing but it doesn't take away from the meaningfulness of it for those who it has meaning to....not all marriages last, not all relationships last, there are no forever guarantees and never were or never can be but in a way, I think it's more meaningful now because we have so many choices, because society doesn't judge so much and there is more support..(I know it's not what it should be/the support..)...but people don't have to feel so much that they have to stay in abusive marriages etc, and I think that was something that happened in many cases 'back in the day'...or have to stay 'for the sake of the children' etc....


..so yeah, I think the meaning of marriage is very much there...