autumnhobbit:

I don’t think our society has had a serious discussion about exactly what is in the best interests of children, and it’s partly because we’re damn selfish as adults in our culture. And we also have this misbegotten notion that marriage is for the happiness of the two people who are married. Like, if you’re married you know perfectly well that the purpose of the marriage isn’t happiness! It’s foolish to think of the purpose of marriage as happiness, that’s….grow up, for God’s sake, it’s like, come on, that’s so crazy. It’s to help you get through life with a relative minimum of suffering and the possibility of some joy now and then. That’s what you can hope for, you know? Get a little bit of joy, man, that’s a good day, you should enjoy it, because there’s a lot of clouds and there’s some sun. And when the sun comes out, then you should bask in it, but you shouldn’t bloody well be expecting the sun to be shining on you all the time. Saint or not, the sun is not going to be shining on you all the time. And you’ve put yourself together with someone for better or worse, right, you’re both paddling, one on each side in a very leaky boat and eventually it will sink. And maybe what you do is hope that the sun shines on you a bit while you’re still afloat. And that’s not the same as happiness. It’s so naive to think of it otherwise.

Jordan B. Peterson