Who Needs Marriage?

Today's Time Magazine Cover: "Who Needs Marriage?  Men do more than women, and it works better for richer than for poorer."

I am struck by this, and annoyed by the implications, but not for the reasons you might think.  I beleived that marriage was an institution derived from thousands of years of men trying to control what women did and how they related to the world as a selfish misogynist's approach to relationships and I was supposed to be wrong.  I was never supposed to buy-in.  When I made the committment though, it was real, and worthy, and important to me.  So much so that it broke me, and made me a stranger to my love, and myself.  It broke our love. 

The article aptly states the common stereotype.  Men fearful of commitment; then turns it on its ear with statistical data (hopefully well-founded and researched) suggesting the opposite becomes true after the committment is made.  Coincidence?

This points to a whole lot of assumption-busting information that leads me to believe, especially under present circumstances, that the whole thing is a farce.  I have believed in the institution as a personal committment and choice.  A spiritual one, never as one that should be influenced by entities outside the betrothed.  My foremost concern for the well-being and stability of the relationship had always been honor, trust, respect, honesty, and ignoring the rest of the world, but in the final analysis my hopes and dreams and beliefs were all found wanting in the face of a simple truth:  When she's done, it's done, and there's nothing anyone can do or say about it.  The farce is that we shouldn't live without it.  Shame on us all! 
Committments between lovers should remain between them and God alone.  Law, and other people be damned!  I will likely say Never again, and mean it for now, but I am a romantic after all.  I believe in the courage it takes to profess one's love for another.  To endure the hardships we create for ourselves and to grow together, choosing to do so, and not to grow apart, but I don't know if I will find that peace for myself. 
A dream interrupted, but not forgotten.