Marriage has been with us since pretty much the first time a group of nomads decided they really liked a particular spot and decided to invent something called a flag to plant on it. Once they had property, they had to figure out inheritance, and that meant formalizing their familial relationships. Until a few hundred years ago, marriage continued to be a version of this concept, where essentially two people would pool resources and forge alliances by putting a ring on it.

Of course, that's a pretty poor substitute for what marriage came to be, starting around the time of Jane Austen and the Romantic movement. The idea of a love match came into being, which means that you should look for a soulmate who completes you. Naturally, that's a little woolly when it comes to the practicalities of real life, and these days, with women pursuing degrees and careers and men freed from the concept of a repetitive manual job for life and no hope of advancement, marriage has evolved once more. 

Now, yes, it's about sharing resources and making a wise match, and yes, it's absolutely about love - but it's also about two individual people who don't need someone to complete them, but choose to share their life, their dreams, and their goals anyway. Being a good wife or husband is about supporting your partner while allowing them to enable your best self and fulfill your greatest potential, whatever that may be. So tell us how you approach a relationship, and we'll see if you're ready to wife it up!