My wife has an addiction. It keeps her up late, interferes with normal social interaction, and may lead to permanent changes in behavior or personality. Yes, my wife has discovered Big Love, and loves it. As a former Mormon (or Latter-Day Saint, if you want to be formal about it), she found the show easy to understand. The dialogue is filled with familiar words and phrases for the Mormon viewer. The topic is one that may not be openly supported by the church, but is a big part of its history, and still practiced by some of its offshoots. I do not know if it is because she is a former Mormon, or because I have not been pulling my weight in housework lately, but she definitely sees merits in having another wife or two. One for cleaning windows, sinks and toilets, one for running the kids to and fro, and maybe one for folding laundry. For practical purposes, she quickly points out that polyandry, multiple husbands, makes a lot more sense than multiple wives, of course. Under polygyny, the poor man would need to service all of his wives, which becomes more difficult with each added spouse. The polyandrous woman, however, does not have that challenge.

For my part, I am not so sure. Multiple spouses, male or female, seems like multiple headaches. Instead of two people charting the same course, you now need three or more people to work towards a common goal. Sure, you now have a division of responsibilities, but you also have to consider the feelings of everyone. It is hard enough thinking of anyone other than myself, dammit! I suppose I would be open to the idea of another wife or two, but only if I did not have to put in the extra effort. Yes, I am that lazy. I am not enlightened enough to consider being one of many husbands, however. And I think hiring a cleaning service would be less stressful and cheaper than either option.

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