Sometimes I wonder if we go a little overboard today with the need to constantly have new things. We are forever throwing the old out to make room for the new. Whether it’s our clothes, our furniture, or our houses, we just can seem to stay content with owning the same thing for long. Once the temporary thrill wears off our latest purchase, there’s nothing for it but to go out and buy something new so we can get that excitement back again. The disposable mindset of our society seems to have affected even our relationships with other people. When we “grow apart” from our friends we forget them and find other people to hang out with, because that’s easier than working out our problems with the loved ones we already have.

But what is probably the most disturbing aspect of our gotta-have lifestyle is the part relating to our marriages or relationships. It has been estimated that the most common time for divorce to take place is around a marriage’s seventh year. Think about that. I have clothes that’ve been hanging in my closet longer than that! Do I still actually wear them? Well, that’s another story…but at least I keep them.

On a brighter note, real-estate agents now claim that the average family moves from one home to a new one every five years. At least people hang onto their spouses a little longer than they keep their houses… Still, the habit of swapping up for a new boyfriend/girlfriend or spouse is a disturbing one. True, if we’re tired of our old car, we trade for a newer model or one that comes in a different color. If we’re bored with the shoes we bought six months ago, we toss them out and bring in new ones. But are we now coming to treat people—people we once thought we loved—like commodities? And if so, what does that say about us as individuals?

But maybe it isn’t too late to change our mindset when it comes to disposable relationships. The constant stream of romantic movies Hollywood continues to grind out every year attest to the fact that people do want “everlasting love”. Its appeal is a universal one. All that remains is for us to figure out how to hang onto that “forever” kind of love once we’ve got it.

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