Why Relationships Matter

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Everyone can have a intimate relationship that may or may not fit into the structure of marriage.

People come together to create a shared purpose for their lives through collaborative negotiation.

Collaborative negotiation requires equal participation from each partner.

This post is part 1 of a series.

We live in an era where building and sustaining a meaningful, intimate relationship within marriage has become increasingly challenging. This difficulty is rooted in our personal experiences and expectations, in societal expectations of marriage, in economic pressures, and in the scarcity of successful relationship role models.

As a society, we are embarking on a quest to change or abandon marital rules because they benefit men and women differently, and benefit married people over unmarried people. All people want to have an opportunity to establish intimate relationships that may or may not fit into the structure of marriage.

We need a new approach to creating an intimate relationship that captures the profound experience of spending a "lifetime" or, perhaps, "some time" together, which includes a commitment to each other. An intimate relationship is an emotional and physical bond between two people, typically involving love, romance, and sexual intimacy. Why make this commitment?

Historically, we called this commitment to each other "marriage," which bound men and women together to procreate, ensuring paternity and creating a stable society.1 From the mid-20th century,........

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