A very personal decision

We are soul mates and lovers. We conquered the twin obstacles of distance and time. We are finally together living our lives as we have always wanted to.

There is no need for the legal status marriage. That we have both been married before and know that the best of intentions can be attrited over time by divergent goals makes us skeptical about the institution of marriage. That piece of paper cannot keep two people together when they do not want to be; it most certainly cannot make the two love each other more. It just makes it difficult for the two to separate and get on with their lives.

So we would have been blissfully happy to carry on with the status quo, building a beautiful and meaningful life together. Over the years, we pooled our resources and capabilities. Over the years, the wealth (quantitative and qualitative) we accumulated became greater than the sum of its parts.

Then a chance reading of inheritance rights got us to thinking about legal protection. We hated the idea that at the worst possible time in either of our lives, that family has the right to challenge provisions we have made for each other.

So, quietly, on a beautiful sunny day some time ago, with just the two requisite witnesses who are the closest of friends, the man and I got married.

And nothing has changed. Not the way friends who always thought we were an old married couple viewed us; not the foes who are still waiting for bad things to happen to us, not the way we go about our lives.

There is poetic beauty in the simple clarity with which we made our decision.