Short course description:
Designer Marriage:
Write Your Own Relationship Contract

    This gathering of couples will explore 28 open-ended Questions,
examining the basic patterns of each specific relationship.
The Internet outline of our textbook presents these basic Questions:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/RC.html
Each couple will define its own unique relationship.
And if the basic principles differ radically from conventional marriage,
they will have a private relationship contract.


Two-page course description:

  DESIGNER MARRIAGE:
WRITE YOUR OWN RELATIONSHIP CONTRACT

     Relationships are never easy.
But they are usually worth preserving and improving.
This is a seminar for couples of any kind
—married or not married; same-sex or other-sex; young or old; conservative or liberal.
And triples and other groups could also benefit from having relationship agreements.

    This seminar will focus more on the practicalities of interpersonal relating
than on the emotional or psychological dimensions.

    Each on-going relationship already has some kind of implicit contract.
And usually the relationship will be improved
by speaking out loud or putting into writing
exactly what the partners are agreeing to do—or not do.

    Our discussion will focus around 28 open-ended Questions
that should be asked in any on-going relationship:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/RC.html

    When you click the above link,
you will discover that the 28 Questions are embedded
in the table of contents for a book called
Designer Marriage: Write Your Own Relationship Contract.

    And these 28 basic Questions (with some sub-questions)
are organized into the following 6 parts:
 
PART I. THE DAILY SHAPE OF THE RELATIONSHIP

PART II. THE PROMISES OR VOWS

PART III. CHILDREN—DURING AND AFTER THE RELATIONSHIP

PART IV. INCOME, EXPENSES, & CAREERS

PART V. ASSETS, PROPERTY, & DEBTS

PART VI. INSURANCE, RETIREMENT, & DEATH

    Designer Marriage is our basic written resource for this seminar.
Some couple will skip lightly over some Questions
because they are not relevant.
For example, if there are no children,
the Questions in PART III are not relevant.
Likewise, if you share no property in common,
the Questions in PART V are not relevant.

    In the book, each Question begins with the default Answer,
the Answer you embrace if you follow the pattern of conventional marriage.
But then several alternative Answers are explored.

    The table of contents on the Internet enables you to read
the first page of discussion for each Question
and several other pages from Designer Marriage.

    If the Answers for your relationship depart significantly from traditional marriage,
then you are creating an alternative relationship pattern.

    Many people who have meaningful loving relationship
are resisting and transcending
the conventional patterns of standard marriage.

    Especially young adults
are questioning the standard patterns of legal marriage.
But instead of merely refusing to get officially married,
they should define for themselves
just how they will conduct their relationships outside of marriage
or making some changes to conventional marriage.

    A few of the couples who will take part in this seminar
will be married couples who are reviewing their original plans.
Instead of getting divorced, they might be able to negotiate
a new relationship contract with each other.
The new agreement will attempt to correct specific problems
they have encountered in their first official marriage
or discovered in their first marriage-like relationship.

    Others in this seminar who have never married
will be able to benefit from the discussion of specific problems
encountered by couples
who have tried the marriage-model for 'loving' relationships.

    Altho this seminar is basically for couples (triples, etc.)
who are ready to discuss the nitty-gritty of their actual relationships,
people who want to attend without a partner will also be welcome.
The facilitator is in an on-going relationship that has now lasted 37 years.
But his partner will not be attending this seminar.
Others (whether in current relationships or not)
are also welcome to attend alone.
You might get some good ideas for your next relationship.

    Once we get started, the actual group of people who make up this seminar
will decide the exact content of our discussions
and the length of time we will devote to each Question.
Thus, this seminar could last three weeks or seven weeks.
We shall see just what emerges from our times together.

    Our main written resource
—Designer Marriage: Write Your Own Relationship Contract—
sells for $30 wholesale.


DISCUSSION LEADER:

    James Park advocates people thinking carefully and creatively
about their loving relationships.
He is the author of Designer Marriage:
Write Your Own Relationship Contract .

Go to the beginning of this website
James Leonard Park—Free Library