Cohabitation leeches a good deal of the romance out of marriage. The breathless excitement a young married couple feels about setting up house together and sleeping in the same bed is one of the great joys of life. Looking back on it later cements the sense that marriage is something sacred and precious. But if the male/female living arrangement becomes a matter of convenience rather than commitment, if crossing a threshold is not accompanied by thrown rice and silver gift packages, it does become more hollow and more brittle.
Mona Charen, “Living together: Test run for loneliness,” Conservative Chronicle 3/31/99, pg.12
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