The Bulwark of a Functioning Society

I think we can agree that men and women are different. Women have the anatomy and the emotional equipment designed to bear and nourish children - the next generation. Men have the anatomy to sponsor procreation and the inclination to protect the nascent family. This is no accident. The newborn human child is the most dependent of all mammalian species. Without the care of the female and the protection of the male the newborn human would quickly die both physically and morally. So how has nature and the human experience reflected and supported this obvious situation?

In so many past ages, in so many diverse cultures, in so many chronicled histories the answer has been labeled the “Family”. The family is that indispensable unit that has surrounded and protected the human ability to respond to nature’s mandate: to perpetuate the species. The family, that unit composed of a man and a woman and children, has not only been the reflection of nature’s mandate but the bulwark of a functioning society. Children, taught and nourished by the mother, a female, and exemplified by the father, a male, are the functionally equipped next generation, a vital element of the future.

What have we called this time honored coupling of a male and a female designed to construct and furnish the bulwark of a functioning society? We have called it many things  but they all devolve into the word “Marriage”. Marriage, the coming together of a man and a woman whose primary goal is to create and raise children according to nature’s mandate. This is the calling. This is the mandate. This word “Marriage” as translated into thousands of languages, dialects and signs throughout history is the verbal and intellectual recognition of an a priori concept, nature’s mandate  - man/woman/child/maintenance of the species.