Marriage, what a beautiful concept but with such a confusing meaning. A little girl or boy first sight of a wedding is all she/ he needs to fall in love with the idea.
How could one not?
The fresh aroma of picked flowers hand designed into bouquets set up along the isle.
A room of orchestra dances through every step you take.
Beautiful décor that makes you feel taken back follows you through the halls and into the banquet.
The bride. All eyes are on that white dress, how it sways back and forth so elegantly, following behind is a veil that just barley touches the ground.
The smile is what everyone comes to see, the smile shows the vow for eternal love and a commitment with her half.
Where is the distraught in that?
Well I hate to burst your bubble but going back ages ago marriage was only an act to form an alliance between families. Daughters at the age of 12 would be forced to walk that same isle but instead of bowing for eternal love, they were bowing for eternal wealth of chickens, sheep and land from the other family.
You see today when one wishes to marry someone, all you got to do is go on one knee and pop the question. Well back then it wasn't that simple. Love was based on wealth. What I mean by that is if your family owned a lot of animals and land, you were good to go. So, if a girl fell in love with a guy, and the guy didn't own land nor had fat chickens, let's just say he was not getting down on one knee any time soon.
Getting back to reality and my point, Marriage has come a long way in America since then. But knowing how society is progressing and advancing in every way through economics, technology and transportation wise, did one ever consider these courses of advancement might be affecting marriage as well?
Marriage is like a house. When a lightbulb burns out you do not go and buy a new house, you fix the light bulb. Back in the early 80's this was the whole idea surrounding marriage. Back then there were no high tech tv's to fall asleep at night while your half was in the other room wishing for your warmth. In addition, there were no cellphones that would distract you from the meal your half-spent hours making for you. There was just you and your half against the world and that was enough.
Today once a lightbulb has broken, society cheats around trying to find ways to keep it off. While the house sits there in dark wondering if it was ever worthy of its light.
Marriage is such a beautiful blessing that two people have spent not only time and money on but there hearts a well. A vow back then meant something. Today it's just a sentence that anyone can say without feeling but back then it was a promise
A very good example would be your grandparents. Grandparents are the cheese to a pizza. Who do you know that could tell a story about their marriage better then your grandparents? I know every single time my grandparents light went out; they wouldn't sit there and go get a new light. No, they would put a little spice here and there and throw the doubt out the front door.
Now, you might be wondering why I have decided on such a touchy subject. The reasoning being is, a coworker had asked me if I believe in the idea of marriage today, and honestly there was a time personally where I thought marriage was the ultimate happy ending but today my answer was far from a fairytale.
I am going to get real deep here for a second so hold on to your hats.
As a little girl I saw my parents get married. I don't remember a lot of it, but I remembered the feeling. We had such a beautiful, big family. You see my dad had kids from his previous marriage who turned into my half sisters and brothers. Let's just say I was never lonely. Holidays had our unique made up traditions; birthdays were always a laugh and dinners were never without giggles or smiles. Life was perfect. Growing up though, I saw my friend's families break apart and it scared me. I had asked my parents if they would ever leave each other. My mom's answer was "you have nothing to worry about sweet child".
End of 2011 came around and my parents seemed different. My dad was arriving home late, my mom was not eating, and fights were continuous. At Christmas my parents opened a gift to a DVD that I had spent months putting together about how much all the kids loved them.
New Year's Eve I woke up to my mom yelling out the words "you are sleeping around with her" to my dad. I remember my heart sinking in confusion. From that night on, my dad slept on the couch. February 2012 my parents divorced and split up the family within 2 days. There were no longer holiday traditions, no more birthday laughs, and dinners were now painfully quiet. To make matter worse, I had a mother with a broken heart.
Seven years later, I still have the DVD I once gave to my parents.
Maybe I am touching on this subject because of that little girl inside, who's heart is still trying to understand.
To end this way to serious page, marriage is and will always be open to interpretation. There will always be love and there will always be lightbulbs worth fixing, but as society advances more, their will be less stories and more room for abandon houses.
