Marriage is not a hobby.
For many people today, in our society, living fully means living autonomously, that is, living as if one’s own desires were sufficient as a guide for living well. People often admire those who can impose their will on the world. “Leadership” is confused with willfulness. With this conviction, others are helpers or instruments for making one’s way in one’s own way. With this conviction, even the marriage relationship is reduced to a means of self-fulfillment. It is to last only as long as it is useful to a husband or wife’s self-discovery, and to be broken or discarded when it seems to threaten individual autonomy. It does not really engage someone who is almost totally engaged with himself or herself. Marriage becomes a hobby rather than a vocation.
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