In romantic fiction and in the movies, the happy ending usually closes on an embrace, with the implication that the couple will marry-and-live-happily-ever-after. In reality, marriage is a beginning instead of an ending. It is of course the end of one phase of life- the growing-up phase- but in terms of a lifetime its importance is greatest as the beginning of a new, mature kind of life. In courtship, loving was the important relationship; in marriage the emphasis shifts to living with the other person. The relationship of two persons in marriage is a new one, and not just an extension of the old one of courtship.</p
