Beyond The Barrio: The Expiring Marriage, Genius!
16 October 2007, 3:10 PM. By Daniel Mauser
Guanabee is a child of divorce, so if we have a chip on our shoulder about marriage, it comes from our overwhelming fear of commitment. Until now! Gabriele Pauli, a beautiful, 50 year-old, red-headed German official from the Franconia province, (who once caused a stir by posing in latex gloves for a magazine), is proposing the idea of an expiring marriage after surviving two failed marriages herself. She estimates that the optimal length one human being can be hitched to another is seven years:
A period of seven years is appropriate because after that time the couple enters crisis. And statistically, one out of two unions is dissolved.
Pauli added that if after seven years, the spark is still there, you always have the option to renew your vows. So basically you get a lease with an option to buy. Ignoring the obvious “Seven Year Itch” references, we think this is a fantastic idea. Of course the Catholic Church of Bavaria feels otherwise. Which was Pauli’s idea all along:
[Pauli] is a maverick intent on shaking up her male-dominated and mainly Catholic party which has dominated Bavarian politics since World War Two.
The Bavarian Church has denounced Pauli’s idea as heresy stating that “a marriage with an expiration date is a contradiction in itself. No one gets married just to get divorced.” Apparently People magazine does not make the rounds over at the Catholic Church of Bavaria.
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This is the best fucking idea since sliced bread, and tortillas.
Self-renewing marriages with regular contract negotiatons?
Add love into it, and it sounds like free agency!
interesting theory. but how egocentric is this! “if my marriage can’t work, then no one elses will…” Stop trying to impose your misfortunes on the rest of us. I highly doubt this will ever go through…. If people really feel this, then they should just put it in their pre-nup..”after seven years we’ll automatically divorce..unless of course we don’t want to.”
Actually, I kind of think this is a genius idea. And people could have a choice of going the renewable route or the permanent route. It’s like you get to lease-to-own or just buy it now! (do you get the milk too?)
But imagine the awkwardness when you find out your fiance(e) totally wants a forever marriage and you thought you were only in for 7 years…