Proverbs on Marriage

Music: The Art of the Fugue, Fugue 19.
By J. S. Bach. Sequenced by Alessandro Simonetto at Kunst der Fuge.

1. Romantic love is a lightning bolt. Married love is an electric current.

2. Marriage is a mirror in which one sees a reflection of oneself.

3. The source of joy, in marriage as in lovemaking, is union with another. That is why, while there may be pleasure in purchased sex, there is little joy.

4. Similarly in marriage: when love is mutual, joy bubbles over onto all of life; when it is not, nothing is untouched by sadness.

5. In a good marriage one is continuously in love, regardless of anger, hurt, or the longing to be free. The trick is to be aware of it.

6. In time, one may resent the permanence of one's spouse almost as much as one relies on it.

7. That is why married couples bicker over trivia. For what is annoying at the moment is insufferable over a lifetime.

8. The hatred in a divorce is directly proportional to the love in the marriage, since only a strong hatred can sever a strong love and set the wounded free.

9. Marriage is a bulwark against time. For time is the measure of change, and in marriage two vow never to change.

10. In the end, of course, like the sea to a sandcastle, time sweeps over marriage, whether through death or betrayal. The bit of respite marriage affords is, however, all the Eden one needs for happiness. Or is likely to get.