Wedding fun

My eldest child is getting married and it has brought to mind thoughts I have on both weddings and marriage in general.

It is truly an amazing thing when two people get together and decide to get married. What they are actually trying to do is form a new family unit. From this the next generation can spring and then they too can become ancestors.

The modern thing of writing your own vows is pretty silly. The old ones pretty much covered all the bases that needed to be covered.

Firstly I like the word cleave, as in cleaving unto each other. What this says to me is that you become one unit. One itches, then the other scratches. If you think of being a single unit then how could you do anything that would harm the other part of you or hurt the other part of you?

The second bit of forsaking all others, well that is true, you have to put your spouse first. I know this is an ignored opinion with people being told to pursue their own fun and give their partners freedom to pursue their own thing. Just be careful that in all the pursuing the reason for being together does not get lost. 

The thing I feel with the forsaking is that at last you are declaring to the world that you are a new family that all other people should not impeded your progress towards this goal. The other part of forsaking is the being faithful to your spouse until you both die. Now this one is pretty harsh. Not the bit that when you both alive, this goes without saying, but, what most people don't seem to get is that it is until you both peg.

The thing is that what you are agreeing to is serious. If you are an honourable person then the vows that you are taking should almost make you shit yourself. You are on the lightest side of the agreement, promising to love this person regardless of what happens. You are promising to cherish them no matter what.

The word cherish should be worried about. It is sneaky. Cherishing goes way beyond loving and caring, cherish is the thing that will make your heart skip a beat when you unexpectedly see your spouse in a crowd. Cherish is knowing what the other one want before they even do. Cherishing can just bring a lump to the throat in all it should invoke.

In traditional wedding ceremonies they have all the times quoting all the ups and downs. If you live long enough together you will experience the better and worse, the richer, the poorer and the sickness and in health. In the modern idiom I think they should add in the exciting and the boring. They should also add something about even in the cross and grumpy. The thing about in sickness of course is that with one sign of a pen, your spouse now has the right to make all of your medical decisions should you not be able to. So be nice to them, they could switch off the machines one day.

Now with all this talk of marriage we get back to the wedding. Instead of it being quite a sober affair that is in line with what you are promising to do, most wedding become this extravaganza of trying to be people who we really are not. Women would not in all reality run around in white poofy dresses that make them look like sugar plum fairies. What does it say about us that we expect people to pretend to be someone else on the one day that you had better have a grasp on what is real.

I know it is a celebration, and as such I will keep my opinions to myself. (Here doesn't count, the likelihood of my child reading this is almost the same odds as the zombie apocalypse)

I think it is lovely that they are getting married. It shows hope and really that is all that is needed to keep going in this world of ours.