GUYS AND GAYS
WHAT ON EARTH IS
MARRIAGE?
Does any
Elephant know that we have given the name, elephant to it and therefore, it is
properly an elephant? Not by any chance. Does it care what you or I call it?
Not in the least. Of course, a pet dog or cat may respond to a name that we
give it. It does not mean that it attaches any great significance to it. It only
gets confused if 2 or 3 pet dogs in the house are given the same name. Barring
that, even if you call it a mouse or ant, it doesn’t care. It responds to this
name with a single sound in its language. Dogs, cats, crows etc, usually have
just one word in their languages. For all needs, they have to depend on body
language. A dog’s bark or a lion’s roar doesn’t tell you whether it wants to
eat you or whether it loves you. They have to use a lot of body language to
tell that.
Naming is the
game that we humans play. We have hundreds of languages and in each language,
everything is called by a different name. Which means, elephant is not an
elephant in hundreds of other languages. This name has no meaning or
significance in those foreign tongues. Yet, naming has a certain use and
utility for people speaking the same language.
For instance,
calling a man a man is useful. It differentiates him from a woman. Calling a
woman a woman likewise is useful and utilitarian. We begin to understand the
man and woman a lot better by this categorization and naming.
We know that we
are not responsible for making men and women, though we go into acts that seem
to make the Next Gen. It just happens. Not that, it happens only because of us.
Men and women
are rational. And emotional. And when emotional, we are a lot irrational. Whoever
made us, made us that way. When men and women turn emotional in a certain rational
or irrational way, we tend to reproduce our next Gen. Man plus woman plus the
Next Gen produced by them is called family. We have called them so. Man plus
woman must take care of the next Gen so that the Human Race goes on forever on
the earth. That has been the unwritten understanding of the human race – until recently.
This is the unwritten understanding among all animals, birds, reptiles, insects
and so on – even now.
What happens
when men like men only and not women to satisfy their emotional needs? Likewise
what happens when women like women only and not men – for their emotional needs?
Well. There will be no Next Gen!
How does it
affect the earth and the Universe? No effect. The earth goes on happily – as
always. It is just that there will be no bombs. There will be no one to go from
earth to Moon or Mars. There will be no human race. No religions. No castes. No
races. No villages, No cities, No civilizations. No uncivilized people hating
or killing others for reasons such as caste, colour, language, religion and so
on. No singing, No dancing, No airplanes, trains, cars. No air-conditioning. No
restaurants. The world will go on. The dogs will still be there. The lions and
elephants will still be there. Nobody will miss us. We are useless for almost
every living being on earth, though, they are useful to us.
This, however is
not the point to ponder. The point is this. Men are beginning to like men only –
and not women. Women are beginning to like women only and not men. They say,
they are made that way. As of now, this phenomenon is a trickle. But, it promises
to become a storm, a tsunami, a huge flood. They say, no one has the right to
object when two men decide to live together and indulge in what they call love
and sex. Or, if two women decide to live together and decide to indulge in what
they call love and sex. It may be that there is NO NEXT GEN. Clearly there is
no possibility of NEXT GEN, when this phenomenon becomes a flood.
Many Societies
are calling this union of men with men and women with women as MARRIAGE! They live together with full “marital rights,”
whatever these rights are. More and more men are disillusioned with the
opposite sex and are falling head over heels (or whatever) for this same sex
“Marriage”. Ditto with women. They are also disillusioned with the opposite
sex and are opting for Same Sex “marriage”. We are yet to understand their
compulsions, or their obsessions. Neither do they.
Are we, the
others, able to understand the compulsion of liking the opposite sex and
falling head over heels to marry them and have what we call as sex – so that –
we reproduce the likes of us – the next Gen? No. we also don’t understand the
hormonal changes, their effects, why they come when they do, why they go when
they go, and so on.
People like
Socrates have warned – Get married, either you will become disillusioned or
illusioned. Marriage between man and woman is not a bed of roses either. If
they are, they do come with thorns.
For thousands
and thousands of years, marriage has
been defined as the union between a man and woman, especially for the
purpose of sexual relations and procreation.
Even if sexual
relations and procreation are not there, yet, the union between a man and woman
is stilled named as marriage, because it grants the couple the “rights” for
sexual relations and procreation and is recognized by the society as such.
Marriage is for
orderly sex and orderly procreation – so that, there are no quarrels, battles
and wars for sex. Woman, especially the woman, is granted a safe and
respectable place, in the society, and she enjoys safety, respect, protection
and support of the society in the institution of marriage. Likewise, every man,
however weak he may be, enjoys the protection of the society in making his
marital life safe, and protected – from the onslaughts of the stronger men in
the society. These are the basic building blocks of the institution of the
marriage – in every human society. Whether the man and woman will be happy or
not – depend a lot on them – understanding or misunderstanding each other.
Marital happiness depends on many such factors.
The definition
of marriage also implies the
definitions of man’s and woman’s sexual organs, their purpose in marriage, the
process of procreation and the very purpose of marriage. This is thus, almost a
water-tight definition.
For long, we
have seen quotes like “marriages are made in heaven.” Whether they are made in
heaven or not – they are purposeful for
the long term continuation of the human society.
All societies
have built up procedures and formalities, before a union of a man and woman is recognized as
marriage.
If a man and a woman
have sex and procreate, then also, it is not a marriage unless society
recognizes the relationship as marriage, keeping in view the social purpose.
Marital
relations are differentiated from
extra-marital and pre-marital relationships between man and woman. There
has never, ever been any doubt in this respect for all these, for thousands of years.
Now, the LIVING
TOGETHER of GAYS does not satisfy any of these criteria. Nor does the living
together of Lesbians. So, where is the justification for dubbing these
relations also as “marriage”. We can call
it by any other name – but why should we call it by the name of marriage.
Do we call a Potato a tomato? Do we call a sparrow a crow? Should we? Just
because two things are eatables, or two things are birds, we don’t call them by
the same name. It confuses. More importantly, the purpose of naming is lost.
If a boy and
girl in their early or late teens
indulge in sex, at school, or in dating, we are not calling even that as
marriage, even if it results in procreation.
Marriage needs
social recognition and must serve the long term Social purpose. It must result
in or at least oriented towards furthering
the human race into future generations.
It must fulfill certain criteria recognized as
“marital relations”, “marital promises” and so on. Any other relationship not satisfying these criteria must not be
called “marriage”.
If 2 GAYs live
together, or if 2 lesbians live together, this main purpose of marriage,
namely, furthering of human race in to future generations – is just not served.
In fact, if everyone falls for these relationships – human race ends with this
generation itself. The dwindling attraction between man and woman is perhaps, mostly
due to overexposure to sex and nudity – and this is perhaps the main cause for
these Gay and Lesbian types of relationships. Or, perhaps, nature has some
unique plan of its own in ushering in these relationships – to reduce
population or some other such purpose of its own. We never understand Nature’s
designs fully.
But, society can
always give it any other name, but not marriage. Let us coin
new names for the purpose. But,
calling these relationships as marriage seems
meaningless and this infuses a whole lot
of avoidable confusion into the society and social relationships immensely.
The similarities are too less and differences are too many to permit them to be
called as marriage. The implied confusions in these relationships are – a man
calling him-self a wife, and, a woman calling herself a husband! Do we need
this confusion?
Whether these
phenomena are normal or not is not for us to say. These phenomena are there.
They need a name. That is the only problem. That is not a problem if we give
these relationships a name different from “marriage”.
The point is –
not finding fault with or ridiculing any relationship. It is perhaps Individual liberty, what they do in private,
with mutual consent. The only aspect to high light here is, we must not call
these relationships by the name “marriage”. Coin new Names. Call them anything
else.
* *
* E N D *
* *