Marriage Material?

As a single person we have all these ideologies about marriage.

We think, it's mainly about love, true love, finding "the one", that one true soul mate and spending your life together. Laughing, making babies, traveling, fighting and making up, crying on each others' shoulders, talking about your day, having long dinners together. And we wait for that day, for that one person that will fit into this dreamy ideology. Some of us wait longer than others but we still wait, hope, pray and wish upon a star (or about a dozen of them), then pray some more, etc. Then one day you realize...

For the past few months I've been told stories that people don't necessarily marry their one true love. They meet them but then they don't marry them. They let them...get away. Then they spend a significant part of their lives wondering: What If. They don't marry this love of their life because inasmuch as they love this person so dearly, that person is just not "marriage material" and they can't see married life with that person. They can see being in love with that person just not marrying that person. I asked repeatedly, "What say ye is this 'marriage material' and why is it determining your love life?" Opinions differ from family background to job to temperament to not-being-a-good-wife-or-husband. I'm sure there are many more other reasons but...
 
Since I heard this revelation I've just been in a haze, toppled by the news. Walking around, I  look at married couples and think, "Wonder if he or she married this person out of love or just to fulfill the so called marriage material criteria?" 

 

Tell me (all 10 of you that read this!) What is marriage material? And why has it taken the place of true love?
 
Or you can choose not to tell me, if it'd make you more comfortable, I just wanted to share the haze I've been in ever since I heard this from quite a few people. I suppose my holding out for true love is a waste of my time...

I really should learn to be a realist and not an idealist.