I'm Feeling Lucky button

Here's what I think. Every once in a while, I'm going to type in a word or two of what's on my mind, hit the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button in Google, and blog about whatever pops up for the result.

In this particular episode, I have punched in "marriage." What came up? Wikipedia, of course! Now, I could comment on marriage itself, but how about Wikipedia?

I used to wonder why Wikipedia was such a crappy source to use in a professional research paper. Little did I know that, if I so desired, I could EDIT THE PAGE and make myself a subject in Wikipedia. Look up Shell Lake, WI, and it could say "home of the big two tailed fish and the ever so lovely Anne Bitney." As a result, I could have people writing in depth research about me and I wouldn't even know it! My friend Andrew did that (not write a paper on me but put his name on Wikipedia), and it was up for about a week or two before the creators took it down. Awesome.


Ok, this is what Wikipedia has to say about marriage: "People marry for many reasons, but usually one or more of the following: legal, social, and economic stability; the formation of a family unit; procreation and the education and nurturing of children; legitimizing sexual relations; public declaration of love; or to obtain citizenship."

So what we're looking at here is that A, people marry for stability, so that they have some kind of solid surface to be on. This stability issue isn't one that I would necessarily deem as a good reason for getting married. Just because you're unstable means you should get married? What?

B, people marry to form a family. That's not a bad reason. However, if that's the only reason you're getting married, I'm not so sure. You can have a family without being married, can't you? Overall though, I don't think this is a terrible reason.

C, people marry to procreate. Not even gonna go there.

D, people marry to legitimize sexual relations. We can learn from the actions of one Brittany Spears. She married some guy for 24 hours to legitimize their sexual relations and then went on to divorce right away. If people did this every time they wanted to legitimize their sexual relations... wow. That'd be a mess.

E, people marry to have a public declaration of love. I'm not so sure I've got an explanation for this one. But, if this means that it's a civil union between two people to show their love for each other and have a public unity, then that's really a pretty good reason.

F, people marry to gain legal citizenship. My mom had a guy in her office who was going to marry this woman from Peru or wherever, but she got into the country, married him, and divorced. Good reason for marriage? I think not. But it did work on Will & Grace when Karen's maid Rosie needed legal citizenship. So, 1 out of 2 times, it worked. And if it's on Will & Grace, then it must be so.