Settle for an F

If "A" is for adultery and "F" is for faithfulness, settle for an "F." Faithfulness is central to an "I Do" marriage. 

"I never knew what happiness was until I got married, but then it was too late."

"Marriage is a great institution, but who wants to spend the rest of one's life in an institution."

Without the lumps and bumps, woes and warts of marriages, stand-up comics would starve. In some ways our culture has much in common with the attitude that prevailed in the first century - remaining faithfully committed to one's partner is seen as kind of quaintly foolish, at times even marginally masochistic. We are a society where Wilt Chamberlain's non-basketball statistics (20,000-plus women) are considered as impressive and laudatory as his on-court performances (100-plus points in a game, etc.).

Only recently has a return of fidelity been recommended. Yet even that seems to be motivated strictly by a "save yourself first" mentality. Where- as we are unwilling to view faithfulness as virtuous for its own sake, we will consider it as an effective last-ditch effort to save our own hides by avoiding...