marriage

The Seven Labors of Easy Marriage

Keeping up with the Joneses, illusory values, false customs and habits, fleeting whims, the pursuit of false honor, status, and imaginary prestige - in short, the seven labors: unrealistic and dreamlike expectations, unnecessary fault-finding by parents and relatives, crippling dowries, excessive formalities and a thousand kinds of "preliminaries" and "aftermaths" and deadly rivalries, pointless objections about the two families being of equal standing, fiery and uncontrollable yet uncalculated loves, and excessive suspicion and lack of trust regarding possible future betrayal by one another - these are serious obstacles to marriage.