Love, marriage; marriage, love. It was so simple, once upon a time.

No, that's not true. It never was.

So ancient a subject calls for a classical allusion. The 14th-century "Tsurezuregusa" ("Grasses of Idleness"), random musings of a monk named Yoshida no Kenko (1283-1350), is a perennially delightful source. "A man should never marry," wrote Kenko. "I am charmed when I hear a man say, 'I am still living alone.'"