That's a fairly new addition to the concept of marriage...the original idea is the same as that of a hand-fastening...it's the bonding of two hearts, two souls, two lives into one...it's not the loss of an individual's identity...but gaining an entirely new one...

You couldn't abolish marriage. Marriage is one of the oldest institutions, and you are not the first philosopher :-) to criticize (or be concerned about) marriage. In Plato's Republic, marriage is heavily criticized and he encourages "group marriages" instead of the devotion to a single individual.

When you look at marriage from one point of view, i.e., as a way to cement romantic love, then you also forget that many people marry for many reasons, not just love. But isn't that what we seek in the end? For many, marriage is a convention, a social expectation, it has financial rewards and incentives, some are forced into marriage. When you look at marriages cross-culturally, you find that people marry for any of these reasons: legal, social and economic stability; to form a family; to become a citizen of a state or country; to procreate, educate and nuture children; for sexual relations (otherwise "immoral" in the view of many communities); or for love (ah!).

That marriages end and don't last forever does not make them beneficial for the time they existed. We are human beings who make mistakes and hopefully grow from those mistakes. I personally am more concerned about two human beings living their lives in disharmony and unhappiness as opposed to two who decide to call it quits and search out true happiness.

Divorce can be a beautiful thing. Especially if you marry young and stupid.

Handwashing is not a congruent analogy to marriage. We wash our hands to be sanitary. Though you can draw some moral purpose to handwashing (looking out for others' best interests, keeping yourself safe and sanitary), it hardly measures up to an institution.

Outside religious groups, many people do not consider non-marital sexual relations between two consenting adults to be immoral. And, secondly, sex, like marriage, fulfills many functions for many different people, not just procreation. When you look at the world through a narrow moral compass, of course it can seem quite dysfunctional.

That two people work does not destroy the institution of marriage either. Most people need to work in order to survive or because it fulfills some need outside of the marriage. Not all marriages end up with children, so what is wrong with two people working and having their own divergent interests?

We are complicated organisms with many different purposes and everyone comes to life with a different moral compass.

This is what bothers me: We lie. We lie over and over again about what defines happiness. Like we need some June and Ward Clever lifestyle and two little boys who get cookies and milk everyday after school. We are living in a very abundant universe with a lot of fascinating people. Yet we continue to lie and perpetuate problems that are not real problems. Yes, I am a divorcee and a single mom. But who's problem is that? It's not a problem. I am happier now than I ever was married, and my children are just fine, too.

Follow your bliss. Stop judging the world.

Marry. Don't marry. Have sex. Go celibate. Whatever gets your goat.