When I was at school it was a rough guide to say one third of all marriages ended in divorce. Some say it is more or mostly the same statistic today. The ideal is to stay married all one’s life so one has to ask what did these people do right to begin with and wrong later? Or even to ask what do the people who are married all their lives do right or wrong.
Coming from a family where few of my female relatives has stayed married ( even as far back as the nineteen fifties ) the most pertinent question ever asked was whether or nor marriage is a natural state of things.
I am sure the making of relationships and forging of bonds that last a lifetime is something that comes naturally to some people and not to others. Just as I am sure that the matchmaking within certain age-gaps between the sexes has nothing to do with love for if love exists then a seventy year old woman and a thirty year old man could fall in love.
The ideal is one of order out of the mayhem of individuals forming society. Dressing it up as something individuals would want to do is taught, not inspired. In actual fact I am certain that two people who want to be together can stay together without marriage but they can display everything that is worthwhile about marriage.