I typed a long message, then asked my wife what she thought about the concepts raised.

She informed me that you might be metaphorically pulling my chain.

If you are, well done! I was fooled. Though tricking someone as socially oblivious as I isn't that much of an achievement, I still appreciate the joke.

If you are not, I am happy to discuss the philosophies of committed relationships, but my (very inexpert) main points would be:

• one should honor all commitments
• commitments can be ethically renegotiated with the informed consent of all involved parties
• at the end of the commitment (ie, death in this case), termination or renegotiation is also fair (even if the same commitment is the end result)

edit: corrected an individual word.