Joy of Marriage

Marriage is an art form, the most challenging and complex of all the works a human being can be inspired to create. Unlike painting, poetry, the novel, architecture, or any other of the forms in which the essential creative element of our human nature finds expression, man-the-maker cannot lay down the tools of this art form, step back, and pronounce the work complete. The creators live within and are components of their ongoing creative work. The work of human art that is marriage is a living reality, and the married are personally caught up in its dynamism. Husbands and wives might, as other artists do, reflect upon the present state of the creation, seek objectively to consider its qualities, make resolves for improving the work; but they themselves remain part of the subject of the work itself. A marriage can never be viewed as an abject - a thing that can be manipulated - for its is the unique, never-to-be-duplicated relationship of two persons, two human beings who cannot, save in a crime against humanity, be reduced to mere things. (From the first page, of chapter I: Marriage: The creative Challenge