The Pew Research Center has a new study out: A Generation Gap in Behaviors and Values. The telephone survey (conducted from February 16 through March 14, 2007 among a randomly selected, nationally-representative sample of 2,020 adults) shows that while a younger generation of Americans are comfortable with cohabitation and out-of-wedlock children, they still value marriage.
We live in a world that values the basic elements of a cohesive family: relationships with children, spouse, and parents. It is a world that also appears to increasingly view marriage as optional. One way the authors of the study reconcile these two views is to suggest that never-marrieds and cohabitaters see marriage as an unobtainable ideal.
I wonder if this explains the emphasis and expense of weddings: for one small, glorious moment one can have the perfect marriage on the perfect day forever captured by the best of photographers and videographers. A scrap book of what might have been.
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