LOVE IS ALL THERE IS, RIGHT?

LOVE IS ALL THERE IS, RIGHT?

Dear Playboy Author Boy,

 

Is love the only thing needed to make marriage work? I think that love is all a couple needs (essentially) to make a marriage work. Is love the only thing needed to make a marriage work? Can a marriage work without love? Beyond having a home, a job, a car, food & drink to consume & maybe a large-screen Plasma or LCD HDTV, what else is there besides love that could make or break a marriage?

 

Loving in Louisiana

 

 

Yo Love Dawg,

 

Without love, a marriage will either die or become a zombie relationship.

 

But a marriage needs more than love.  It needs sexual chemistry and money and compatibility concerning all important life issues.  You can be a Republican and successfully marry a Democrat, you can be on opposite sides of the abortion debate, you can even get away with being a bigot and marrying a liberal, but these (believe it or not) are peripheral issues.  If you don't agree on the division of labor in marriage or what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman, you are doomed.  If you have kids and don't agree on what the roles of the parents should be, you are doomed.  If you can't compromise, solve problems and settle arguments, you are doomed.

 

There is a lot more going against marriage than for it.  The odds are always in favor of the house.  Having a successful happy marriage is about as likely as winning all night at the crap table.  Some do, so it is not impossible, but it is unlikely.

 

So if your marriage is firing on all eight cylinders, protect it, defend it and nurture it and teach someone else what makes it work.

 

PBAB