I write high-speed, strategy-driven Military Sci-Fi & Space Opera, where cunning commanders, elite soldiers, and alien warlords fight for survival on the fringes of space. Subscribe to my newsletter for my latest updates!
Till Life Us Do Part
Till Life Us Do Part(3-4 minute read) Readers of Wild Prince at the Starfighter Academy may remember the moment when Tovas explains Saret relationships to Beryn. Saret live for centuries, and because of that, no one expects a single bond to last a lifetime. Partnerships form, change, and sometimes end without shame or scandal. What unsettles Beryn is not betrayal, but the idea that permanence itself becomes unrealistic when time stretches too long. That conversation feels increasingly relevant. For most of human history, romance operated inside tight boundaries. Lives were short. Children came early. Survival depended on cooperation. Economic dependence, social pressure, and biology all pointed in the same direction. Pair up. Stay together. Endure. Love, when it existed, was a luxury layered on top of necessity. Those constraints shaped everything we now think of as “normal” relationships. Marriage. Monogamy. The idea that a single partner might reasonably meet someone’s emotional, sexual, practical, and social needs for an entire lifetime. That model worked not because humans are perfectly suited to it, but because lives were shorter and alternatives were costly or impossible. Those constraints are dissolving. Slowly and unevenly, but decisively, the forces that once locked romance into a narrow shape are loosening. Longer lives. Economic independence for both partners. Delayed parenthood. Reduced biological urgency. Greater tolerance for non-standard arrangements. None of this abolishes love. But it changes its operating environment. When people live longer, relationships stretch. A marriage that once lasted twenty or thirty years may now be expected to last eighty. That is not a small adjustment. It is both a quantitative and qualitative shift. People change. Interests evolve. Personalities mature. What once felt like a lifetime commitment becomes several medieval lifetimes compressed into one bond. This helps explain why serial monogamy has become more common. Not because people value commitment less, but because commitment itself has been extended beyond its original design parameters. Leaving a relationship no longer carries the same survival penalties. Staying no longer feels compulsory. Choice replaces necessity. At the same time, biology is loosening its grip. For most of history, romance and reproduction were tightly coupled. Sex led to children. Children led to dependency. Dependency enforced long-term bonds. Even contraception only partially loosened this chain. Now, reproduction is increasingly something that can be planned, delayed, or decoupled from urgency. Parenthood becomes scheduled rather than inevitable. This has emotional consequences. When reproduction is optional and delayed, relationships shift focus. Love becomes less about building a household under pressure, and more about emotional compatibility, shared values, and mutual growth. That sounds liberating. And in many ways, it is. But it also raises the bar. When you do not need someone to survive, you expect them to justify their place in your life emotionally. Comfort. Understanding. Intimacy. Stimulation. Relationships become evaluated rather than inherited. This creates tension. People have more freedom to leave unsatisfying relationships, but greater difficulty sustaining deeply satisfying ones. Expectations rise faster than emotional skills. Conflict tolerance declines. The cost of disappointment increases. Romance becomes more intentional, but also more fragile. Another shift follows naturally. As lifespans lengthen and lives grow more complex, the idea that one person should fulfil every role becomes less realistic. Friend. Lover. Co-parent. Confidant. Intellectual equal. Emotional anchor. Companion across decades of reinvention. That is a heavy load for any person and any relationship. Some people respond by narrowing expectations. Others by broadening their relational networks. Deep friendships. Chosen families. Non-traditional arrangements. These are not rejections of love, but adaptations to scale. Love does not disappear. It diversifies. But diversity brings uncertainty. Traditional relationship models came with scripts. Courtship. Marriage. Children. Stability. Even failure followed predictable patterns. The future offers fewer scripts and more negotiation. Every relationship becomes, to some extent, bespoke. This is empowering for those comfortable with ambiguity. It is unsettling for those who crave certainty. Love is no longer something you fall into once and remain inside by default. It is something you must actively choose, nurture, renegotiate, and sustain across time and change. That demands maturity. The romantic ideal of effortless lifelong compatibility was always a myth. Longer lives simply make that myth harder to maintain. In its place emerges something quieter. Less cinematic. More demanding. Intentional commitment. Choosing someone not because you must, but because you want to. Again and again. Across phases of life that previous generations never had to navigate. This will not suit everyone. Some will retreat into solitude. Others into shorter bonds. Some will build partnerships that look nothing like their parents’ marriages, yet are no less meaningful. None of this signals the death of love. It signals its evolution. The Saret understood this long before humans were forced to confront it. When life stretches across centuries, relationships must be allowed to breathe, change, and sometimes end without bitterness or moral collapse. Perhaps our vows will need updating too. Not till death us do part. But till long life us do part. Until next time, ***If you've been meaning to dive into the Return to the Galaxy Universe, now’s your chance!Whether you're a new reader or just haven’t grabbed your copies yet, now’s the time to catch up on the award-winning series readers are calling “better than Scalzi” and “the best book since Heinlein died.” There is still time to catch up with the first book. You can also read the series free anytime in Kindle Unlimited:
***Discover More Sci-Fi Adventures Each month, I’ll team up with a group of talented sci-fi authors to bring you an incredible selection of books. Whether you’re looking for thrilling space battles, deep space mysteries, or first-contact encounters, these books are packed with stories to fuel your imagination. Author Spotlight: |
BA Gillies
I write high-speed, strategy-driven Military Sci-Fi & Space Opera, where cunning commanders, elite soldiers, and alien warlords fight for survival on the fringes of space. Subscribe to my newsletter for my latest updates!
The Next Century: Technologies That May Reshape What It Means to Be Human (4-5 minute read) Rather than talking about science fiction this week, I want to look at something slightly different: likely and potential scientific developments that may change the human condition over the next century. Not miracles. Not magic. Just technologies that serious researchers are already working on, with varying degrees of confidence, controversy, and momentum. I’ve broken this into three time horizons....
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