Two bookends, and a book
If a cruel confrontation with polio in his childhood, and a visit from the same foe in his last years were the bookends to my amazingly smart, amazingly flawed father, Edmund’s, time on Earth, then surely one of his most prized accomplishments, set midway between those bookends, was the publication of his book, Contract Cohabitation: An Alternative to Marriage.
Published in 1974, while the scent of the hippy movement was still in the air, and the promises of “Open Marriage” had not yet been betrayed, his book was widely and well-received, even earning him a turn on “The Merv Griffin Show.”
The essence of Contract Cohabitation as a concept is a rejection of the limitations of traditional marriage, in favor of an employer-employee relationship in which either party is free to leave within thirty days.
Looking for love in all the wrong places
As Edmund tells it in his book, he came upon the idea of Contract Cohabitation almost accidentally. After leaving my mother for her former best friend, who was also the wife of his own former good friend, he was swallowed-up by a series of tempestuous romances filled with passion and recriminations.
One day, as he was driving in Northern California, it came to him: he envisioned a relationship that would allow him to be himself, and yet still have committed companionship. For this, he was willing to pay a salary.
Blank contract included
At one-hundred-ninety-two pages, Contract Cohabitation is part-memoir, part-showcase, and part-instruction manual. The book, published by Avon and by arrangement with Grove Press, Inc., is physically impressive, and includes a blank contract for the parties to fill out.
There is also an engaging compare-and-contrast between the ideals of Open Marriage and Contract Cohabitation. Edmund opines that Open Marriage rarely works in practice because one partner to the marriage invariably is overcome by jealousy or feelings of rejection.
In the realm of Contract Cohabitation, however, such feelings will never be an impediment, because both the employer and the employee are free to leave at any time (with a thirty-day notice).
When sex is involved, can it really be that easy?
In a perfect Contract Cohabitation world, calling one partner an employer, and the other an employee, and signing a contract and paying a salary will obviate the need for jealousy and possessiveness.
This, even though sex is an integral part of the arrangement. And, as we know, any time sex is thrown into the mix, all bets are off, no matter what you call the relationship.
