One hears the phrase "living together before marriage" from people. Many don't seem to realize that living together is not necessarily a precursor to marriage; it can be the permanent situation of the relationship. Some committed people, of course, can't get married due to ridiculous legal limits on marriage; others just don't believe that marriage is a worthwhile institution.

It works without any such future plans for tregoweth and me. Why involve an unlikely God or the government in our personal relationship? No sign of dating entropy though we've been together (depending on how you define "together") since perhaps 1994, shacking up since 1998. In tregoweth's words, "We don't have a marriage contract, we have a lease!"