Darwin's marriage musings

Alta Price of 3QD visited American Museum of Natural History’s Charles Darwin exhibit. On display are many of Darwin's personal effects and scientific specimens, including a notebook in which the 29-year-old naturalist brainstormed the pros and cons of marriage.

Selected pros: "Children (if it Please God), Constant companion (and friend in old age) who will feel interested in one, Object to be beloved and played with. Better than a dog anyhow...These things good for one’s health—but terrible loss of time"

Selected cons: "Loss of Time, Cannot read in the evenings, Fatness and idleness, Perhaps my wife won’t like London; then the sentence is banishment and degradation into indolent, idle fool"

Alta writes:

Clearly he was torn with the same problem many of my friends (though I must say only the females actually talk about it) are now facing—namely, settle down with one partner and start a family, or pursue career without such compromise. Of course others are facing the dilemma of perhaps passing up on those pros in favor of the cons, after a few (or not so few) years of putting up with such “terrible loss of time.”

Read the whole thing.

Comments

[R. Mildred]

Definitive proof that there was some intelligent design behind at least one friends episode.

[John]

This song beautifully expresses my three of wedded bliss from 1998 - 2001.

[Ledasmom]

Those Darwin quotes are about the best summing-up of marriage I've ever seen. Or, as I usually put it: "Who are these people, and why do they expect me to talk to them?"