Why was Mrs. Lapin laughing at the Balzac quote about most husbands looking like Orangutans trying to play violins? We avoid building bridges that are destined to fail. We avoid constructing buildings that defy laws of gravity and will fall. Yet, large numbers of people set themselves up in living arrangements that will most likely result in trainwrecks. Do some “open marriages” survive? There may be one or two. Do most children do better living with their father and their mother married to one another? Yes, and what is more most men and women thrive better in marriage than they would in alternative living arrangements. People know better than to defy physical laws yet they often assume spiritual laws are less immutable.

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