I'm not talking about the quality of your marriage, nor of mine, in which case I'd say those kinds of goals emerged rather quickly as the right way to go.
I'm talking about trying to control the winds the second you lay eyes on someone else, and the issues with secondary relationships you referred to. You seemed to express a kind of "oh shit, she could fall in love with someone else with whom it will never go anywhere, that's sad."
I've evolved a "yes. Yes that could happen" response. That's all I'm saying. If it's no help for anyone else, fine, it's just another way to look at things.
I'm certainly not making a judgement on the quality of your relationship. You seem to have something damn interesting going on there.
And, as well, I'll admit it, I was hoping to make my wife feel good when she read the post.
But, for me, the considerations I listed were criteria before I met her. At around 25, I decided I wanted to get married. Then I figured out what I wanted in a wife. Then I found somebody who fit the bill! So I proposed.
My best friend met her after what I think was our second date. After spending a half hour with her, he told me we were going to get married. (Not even so much a prediction. More a statement of fact. That's one of those moments I'll always cherish with Neal.)
And about the "that's sad" part. Did you mean sad for her that the love would ultimately be unfulfilled, or sad for me that my wife could fall in love with someone else?