Beautiful thoughts, beautifully expressed. A pleasure to read this, especially when I just submitted an article on how the hook-up culture has divorced sex from love. That should be out within the next few hours: "What If Sex were a Relationship?"

Our generations (I'll turn 70 next year) may be the last for whom marriage is seen as the primary option in life. I had one successful marriage of 25 years, but I'm no longer convinced the traditional models of nuclear family make much sense in the new millennium.

But even when relationships are brief, I see no reason why they can't be loving, gentle, and mutually celebratory.