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When most of us think of being a witness in a Christian context, we think of being a witness for Christ. In other words, showing the heathen out there a kind of What Would Jesus Do lifestyle. I was driving around today at work and listening to podcasts when I heard one of the most profound messages that I had to share. It was a talk by Donna Otto from Homemakers by Choice entitled Are You a Witness to Your Marriage. I’ll give the link at the end. It was based around a short dialog from the movie Shall We Dance, where Susan Sarandon is talking to a private investigator who she has hired to see if her husband is having an affair; he ends up finding out that he’s just taking dance classes. The podcast plays the clip for you to hear, but I’ll try to paraphrase. She talked about how married couples were placed on this earth to witness the lives of their spouses. Who else would do this job? After 50 years of marriage, who would remember what your spouse looked like on your wedding day? Who will be there to listen to what your spouse is feeling day to day? No one else on earth can be there as close as a spouse with the exception of God. It is almost like saying that a spouse is there to make a lifetime mental documentary of the others life. We all need someone to care for us at this close level and friends will come and go, kids will grow up and leave; only a spouse can truly be there for you. The link; scroll down a bit. I encourage anyone who is married or thinking about it to listen.
Why might POLYGAMY be as common as it is? truth, there are several forms of alternative marriage arrangements in the world. Three most common ones are when one man is married to many women (Polygyny), one woman is married to many men ensures a higher survival rate and better living conditions to many groups world wide, than if more societies practices monogamous relationships. This could bring up the idea and understanding of monogamous relationships into question since currently the divorce rate in general is raising and marriage decreasing or happens later in life. If a form of polygamist family structure is all ones knows, it is practiced for a reason; cultural, economical, religious, survival, improved living conditions, land, politics, etc. that then becomes the social norm and is accepted for what it is: Family. Wikipedia has a good page about Polygamy if you want to further your general understanding of this form of marriage.
A few years ago, the niche space was the Wild West; a free for all, gold rush if you will, for sites to gain critical mass for their respective niche(s) with little competition. The Black vertical is an example of a lucrative niche that was, a few short years ago, up for grabs. BlackPeopleMeet ran away with it, and now Sparks’ BlackSingles.com is now playing catch up. Years of aggressive cpc bids, little competition and a strong platform has BackPeopleMeet as the leading Black dating community and probably as the major earner in People Media’s portfolio of niche sites. While there are still opportunities out there for getting in the niche dating game, it’s fast becoming a crowded/competitive space *give me some elbow room pls* with increasingly little that differentiates one site from the next. A Good Fit: I still think that an AOL/People Media partnership makes sense and will happen. AOL’s BlackVoices.com, the industry leader for Black community news, is a great fit with one of the leading Black dating sites. Not sure how much AOL makes from their Match.com partnership, but I bet that they can earn more revenue by partnering with a niche focused Black dating service. Lost Opportunity: BlackPlanet.com, the leading Black social network that was recently bought by RadioOne (more on this later), really lost out on an excellent opportunity to be the Black dating leader. For starters, they were late launching a dating service (currently called BlackPlanetLove) and secondly, their platform, while improved over time, was clearly not built by seasoned dating industry minded folks. Personally, I would separate their dating section from BlackPlanet.com – less clutter, more focus on dating and better conversions. Roll Up: So when are we going to see someone clean up the dating space and do a roll up of leading niche sites? People Media and Spark are two of the largest niche dating players, but I don’t think that they can afford a significant roll up - in fact, both would probably love to be acquired by a larger player. Time will tell… Life is good!
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04/30/2008 
