(WARNING: This post does not have all that much to do with chastity, so if you’re looking for hot & horny posts, check out some of our other blog entries.)

I’m usually not interested in all of that celebrity gossip/TMZ crap, so I’ll admit that I had only just barely heard about the whole Gwyneth Paltrow thing about “conscious uncoupling.” (Note: I had to go to Google to find out how to spell “Gwyneth Paltrow” correctly. So, yeah.) For those of you who are like me and couldn’t care any less about it… basically, she’s splitting up with her husband but she doesn’t want to call it a divorce. So she came up with this “conscious uncoupling” bullshit to make it sound better than it actually is.

The only reason I mention it is because I read an article in Time magazine today – yes, I read Time magazine, what’s it to ya? – that references the whole situation. Joel Stein writes in the latest issue’s “The Awesome Column” (a satirical humor article that I usually find very funny) about how, inspired by Paltrow’s epic euphamism, he tried to bring the subject up with his wife. He described it as almost like asking for a mid-marriage prenup, which predictably went over worse than asking for a regular prenup.

Anyway, I’m not randomly babbling here. At the end of his article, Stein writes:

It turns out that part of what keeps a marriage going is the pretense that it always will, that the choice over continuing has been taken away from you by the law, social shame and daily habit. It’s unconscious coupling, and I want to keep it that way.

Now to be fair, a lot of what Stein writes is tongue in cheek sarcasm, but I think he’s being serious here. He’s also 100% wrong. Basically, his argument is that the only reason people stay married is because they have to. Does that sound like a wonderful, loving marriage to you? Not me, either. If the only reason he stays married to his wife is because he feels obligated to, I feel sorry for him.

My Lady and I have been through some tough times in our marriage; times where each of us started taking the other for granted, where we fell into a rut, when we were with each other just because we were with each other. Not until we worked out our issues and really started to choose to be with each other did we truly open our eyes and see how wonderful our love and our marriage could be. We aren’t with each other out of habit. We are with each other because we both feel that being in each other’s life makes our own that much more fulfilling. I don’t stay married to my wife because of the so called “social shame” Stein mentions. If anything, I’m fucking proudto be married to such an amazing woman!

Gwyneth Paltrow is shooting for “conscious uncoupling.” Joel Stein wants to build his marriage around “unconscious coupling.” But wouldn’t being with the one you love by choice instead of by force be that much more blissful?

Wouldn’t “conscious coupling” be the pinnacle of a healthy, loving marriage?