I Thee Wed

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The nightly news started with a story about the fact that interest in marriage is dwindling. People are waiting a lot longer to get married these days, marriage isn't lasting as it did in recent years, and some are saying that marriage will one day be obsolete.

I'm not sure, but I can't really consider this to be good news. Marriage, done well, is pretty damn cool, right? Doesn't the Bible tell us things about it? Isn't the commitment that goes with love supposed to be a factor.

Let's examine. 54% of the American adult population is married...so it isn't exactly obsolete, but that is down from 72% in 1960. The average age of a marriage start, now, is over 28. My parents had four kids by the time they were that age! Yet times change, right?

I'm all against the down trend in marriage and that's because I believe that the family is an essential part to the moral togetherness of our country. I was talking the other day to a kid who was trying to tell me a story about his ex-uncle, who was close as hell with his ex-wife, his ex-father-in-law and his ex-sister-in-law. He was trying to continue the story, but I stopped him in mid-sentence.

"I can't follow all the ex, this and that crap," I told him. "Consider this an ex story, I'm out of here."

He laughed. But it is strange. Everyone has a half-brother, half-uncle, baby momma, absentee dad, ex-grandma....confusing, ain't it?

What the hell happened to riding it out? Eating dinner across the table from the same sonuvabitchin' face that you woke up looking at in the morning.

I think of my mother, who once told my Dad, in response to his question of whether or not he should fix her breakfast:

"No, you make me breakfast and then twenty minutes later you make me want to throw it up."

That's marriage, you know? That's part of the cool process of it all. The endurance. The back and forth. The sharing.

Of course, its hard because the values of people have changed as well. There are some people that get married that have no intention of trying to stay married and of course, in those instances, you are better parted. It does the kids no good to see perfect hate at play, but the fact that marriage seems to be going away, saddens me.

After all, misery loves company, right?

Of course, I am kidding there. We all know by now that I have a wonderful wife, who gets better with each passing day...I love looking at that same sonuvabitchin' face every day, even if I make her want to throw up her breakfast now and again.

Hey, at least I make it for her!

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