THE MARRIAGE OPTION

Although Unitarian minister David Sammons begins with a glimpse of wellknown marital alternatives (San Francisco hippies, communes, swinging and swapping), his concluding Margaret Mead dictum ""marriage has always been with us and always will be"" sums up his wholesome one-to-one commitment approach. A sentimental romantic, he is frankly thankful ""America has not greened in the way the optimists and experimenters of the late '60s hoped."" Not that he favors the ""picture book"" marriage; that's an ideal ""not only difficult to attain but wholly inadequate for meeting the real life crises."" Sammons prefers the ""centered"" relationship, based on ""knowing,"" a Biblical concept requiring a ""unique kind of intimacy that will allow a couple to search and grow together."" To stop short of this closeness is to be incomplete, but recognizing passages of personal growth (documented by Fromm, Erikson, and Sheehy), Sammons has a ""non-condemning' attitude toward divorce, born partly of his own mid-life second-time-around partnership. Still, his catchy title belies his fundamental belief. He leaves us in no doubt that marriage is the only option. A worthy argument, delivered with more bouncing good cheer than some will be able to stomach.