I wasn’t going to get that complicated about it.

I’d just go with, "we should get married …" as a means of seeing if he’s thinking about permanence and what the potential barriers to the objective are.

Or, "what are your feelings about marriage?" to suss out whether or not he’s opposed to marriage as a construct. Some people are. If he’s dead set against it because he’s against religion but you’re from an uber religious family where your relationship won’t be accepted without it, best know that sooner rather than later; that kind of thing.

Or just the old standby, "Will you marry me?" and let it ride.

One things for sure, people don’t talk about this stuff early enough or seriously enough. We’d all save ourselves a lot of time if we did. That includes conversations about money, kids, and careers too.

For some reason, it makes people feel awkward, like they’re shopping. So, these questions have become kind of taboo and people read all sorts of craziness into it.

And that has always struck me as weird because people only date for two reasons.

You’re either actively shopping for a life partner and a mate right now, or you’re shopping for experience, trying on different styles, trying out fit, etc for when you are actively shopping for a life partner and a mate.

Otherwise, why would you do it? How many people actually enjoy dating most of the time? In fact, until you find that good fit, dating sucks balls. Big, hairy musk ox balls. We all pretty much seem to be in agreement on that.