Companionship drives people to marry

Film critic Roger Ebert recently wrote an article (http://tinyurl.com/2bqmz33) discussing loneliness.

I thought about the issue of marriage in Iowa when I read this: “ ... Someone once said the fundamental reason we get married is because we have a universal human need for a witness. What all people share is a desire not to be - or at least not to feel - alone.

“The biological reason we fall in love may be to encourage reproduction. Yet why did nature provide homosexuality if that is the only purpose? Why do people marry with no prospects of children? Babies are not the only thing two people can create together. They can create a safe private world. ... They can find someone to laugh with, and confide in. Someone to hold them when they need to be held.”

We all know in our hearts that what Ebert says is true. So live and let live. Nobody wants to live their lives alone, including gay people. Other people's happiness is no threat to you.

Alan L. Light

Iowa City