What happened to committed relationships?

Whatever happened to committed relationships? The kind of people who marry with the goal of living a lifetime together. When my son met his wife he told me he met the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. I asked him why he thought he would like to spend the rest of his life with this particular girl and he said,"She will be even more beautiful when she is old and wrinkled."

These days relationships have become more of a casual exchange and no big deal. It seems that commitment has become a thing of the past. I wish we could go back to a more innocent time. I time when people took the idea of finding someone to spend their life with worth doing.

There are groups of people who believe a marriage should always begin with a courtship. They say a courtship should not involve an exchange of physical contact except for holding hands as a way of staying pure. While others believe an exchange of kisses is okay in a courtship as long as time together is chaperoned. I can understand the keeping pure part. Some say exchanging more than that will cause you to losing a piece of yourself. I don't necessarily agree.

If when you love someone you give a little of your self away. Then it is more like an exchange. You give a little and they give a little. In return you both have an opportunity to grow. There is no loss, simply a little exchange.

It may be possible to give too much of yourself away. To dive in so deep you don't take as much as you give. In that case there could be a loss. That kind of loss happens when one of two scenarios occur. Either when a couple are too new and go too far to fast or when a couple has committed and one side quits giving and the other compensates to try to maintain balance. It is a sad state of affairs when that happens.

I am never certain how people can invest years in a relationship and walk away without thinking about it. What ever happened to "for better or worse?"