Marriage, 2009.08.18

A fundamental element of self ownership is your authority to associate with any competent willing person. You can enter into a contract, you can cooperate, and/or you can cohabit with another human who wants the same things you want. As your self owner, you have the responsibility to manage your life; this includes deciding with whom you wish to associate.

Marriage is a purposeful relationship defined through exchanges of promises between its parties. You can see this when you consider the wedding(s) in which you participated or that you witnessed. For example, the parties promise to love, honor, and cherish each other, to stay with each other no matter what, until one dies. Often, someone will discuss why this event is taking place. Weddings are precursors to the marriages that they define. And you can tell how well a marriage turns out by observing how well its parties keep their promises to each other.

Unfortunately, when your life is a resource, other people tell you who and when and why and where and whether you can marry. They demand that you get permission from them, or from those to whom they delegate the power to grant such permission. If you refuse to get permission, these people refuse to recognize your marriage. They may even encourage someone else to coercively marry your partner or you.

As your self-owner, you have the ultimate authority to share your life with another like-minded party. You have the self-granted authority to celebrate through exchanging promises a decision between someone else and you to have a purposeful relationship. You have the authority to disregard the demands of people that you allow them to direct your life according to their designs.

2009.08.18