I prefer to see it as romantic. Marriage is about trust, and trust takes you quickly to the matter of money. It is very hard to trust someone and share all your worldly goods with that person, but the alternative is worse. Leaving the space blank meant there was no one to look after my daughter if something happened to me, no one for doctors to consult in case of emergency, no one to bury me if I dropped dead, no one to decide which manuscripts to burn and which to sell. Leaving it blank meant I was an orphan from the human family.
Marriage fills the blank and does more.
A good marriage replaces monologue with dialogue, enhances your life expectancy, and gives you somebody to blame for whatever is wrong with your life. If you want to stay married, you don't hold the grudge. You realize that whatever you gave up in order to join your life with this other person's was more than compensated for by the things you got. But that doesn't mean you lose the right to complain. It's the endless silences that torpedo them .