I think everyone has
an idea of what the word “marriage” means. It can, and does, mean many things
to many people, but I would hazard a guess that for most “marriage” is
generally understood to mean something like a man and a woman have the ceremony
where they are pronounced man and wife, they live in a house together, have
children and live happily ever after. That’s what “marriage” means in the
Western mind.
Undoubtedly, however, we live
in changing times. As little as a hundred and fifty years ago, humans flying
somewhere was incomprehensible. Travelling anywhere of great distance required
months of hardship and the chances of death en route were as good as arriving
safely. Just two generations ago space travel was the domain of nutters and
science fiction writers. Within my life time, television was a miracle. Colour
television was unheard of. Computers were the domain of the aforementioned
nutters and science fiction writers who droned on about space travel.
