Marriage has no guarantees. If that's what you're looking for, go

When Erma Bombeck said, “Marriage has no guarantees. If that’s what you’re looking for, go live with a car battery,” she spoke with humor, but behind that humor lies an ancient and profound truth: that love is not a contract of certainty, but a covenant of courage. The words, though modern in their wit, echo the wisdom of ages — that no bond of the heart can be secured by promises alone. Marriage, like life itself, is not powered by predictability, but by endurance, understanding, and faith. The car battery gives power without thought, but love requires the peril of the unknown — the daily choice to remain steadfast even when the road is rough.

In the ancient world, the philosophers and poets knew this well. They saw love as both a joy and a trial, a force that could elevate the soul or test it beyond measure. Homer’s Odysseus and Penelope, separated by decades of sea and war, did not survive because of guarantees — they survived through devotion and patience. Each day, Penelope wove and unwove her tapestry, holding onto hope not because she was assured of its reward, but because love made her steadfast. That is what Bombeck reminds us of: that marriage endures not through warranty but through will, not through perfection but through perseverance.

Erma Bombeck, with her sharp wit and tender heart, was one of America’s great chroniclers of ordinary heroism — the small battles of domestic life where humor becomes survival. Her words strike like lightning because they reveal what many fear to admit: that the search for safety in love is the very thing that kills it. A car battery may offer stability, but it has no warmth, no laughter, no tears. It cannot betray, but it also cannot forgive. The power it gives is mechanical; the power of love is spiritual — unpredictable, ever-shifting, but alive.

There was once a couple who had been married for fifty years. When asked their secret, the old woman smiled and said, “We never fell out of love at the same time.” That is the heart of Bombeck’s teaching. There are no guarantees that two hearts will always beat in rhythm, but when one falters, the other must carry the song. The sacred task of marriage is not to find a partner who never fails, but to become two souls who keep returning to the same table, again and again, through joy and sorrow alike.

Those who seek certainty in marriage mistake love for machinery. A car battery may be reliable, but it cannot grow. It will not surprise you, nor disappoint you, but neither will it touch your soul. To demand guarantees in love is to demand stillness from the river — and in stillness, it dies. The beauty of marriage lies precisely in its risk, its fluidity, its power to transform two imperfect beings through the fires of time and trial. To love is to step into that fire willingly, knowing you may be burned, yet trusting that the flame purifies as much as it pains.

In this, marriage becomes a mirror of life itself. The ancients taught that fortune favors the brave — not those who seek safety, but those who dare the uncertain path. Love is not about control; it is about surrender — not to weakness, but to the divine dance of two hearts learning to move as one. When storms come, the wise do not curse the sky; they set their sails. So too in marriage, one must learn not to flee from difficulty, but to find grace within it.

Let this be the lesson: if you seek something guaranteed, seek not love, for love is made of mystery. Seek not the unchanging, for it will leave you hollow. Instead, embrace the uncertainty as the proof of life itself. Each day in marriage is a new vow, spoken not with words but with deeds — to listen, to forgive, to begin again. That is the only true power love offers: not the power of permanence, but the strength to rise after every fall.

So remember, when the road feels long and the light seems dim, do not long for the cold perfection of the car battery. Choose instead the warm imperfection of the human heart. For it is there, amid the cracks and chaos, that love reveals its divine spark — not guaranteed, but glorious.