So Why'd You Get Married, Anyway?

Before I met and settled down with the love of my life, I asked lots of people what it was that made them decide to get married. No one ever gave me a cogent answer, or at least not one that satisfied me. Nothing they said was rational. Instead, it was always the usual, "Because we were in love," or, "We just wanted to be together." It was all emotion, and I couldn’t relate.

I waited a long time to get married, so of course I was asked why I stayed single so long. All I could say was that I had never met anyone I couldn’t live without. I still haven’t, but I met someone I didn’t want to live without. Now that I am married, I can’t give a rational answer to why I was willing to become half of a whole either, but I guess that isn’t as bad as it sounds.

"Being together" can’t be described in a simple sentence, though. Something that begins as optional companionship turns into a legal partnership, then takes years to develop into a oneness, and the process is pretty complex. It is an evolution that churns the heart, tries the patience, enhances life and forces growth. With all of its ups and downs, it can sometimes be pretty difficult to remember why you decided to take the leap in the first place, other than that he or she made your heart skip a beat, and to be apart was to die a little.

There’s a lot about marriage that that can’t be understood until you’re in it up to your eyeballs. I’ve never worked so hard in my life for no pay, nor been so rewarded without a paycheck. The fact is, when it’s good, there’s nothing like it. Unfortunately, when it’s bad, there’s nothing like it. That’s when people start dropping like flies, leaving the ghosts of once-hopeful unions haunting the steps of family courts.

I tell him our marriage would be perfect if he’d just shape up, and he laughs. He thinks I’m kidding. He doesn’t know that I know he thinks the same thing, and we both think we’re right. Still, we’ve learned to tolerate each other’s imperfections and laugh at most of our foibles. He’s eccentric. I’m exasperating. But why is it that he doesn’t hear me the first time I say something, and if I repeat it, I’m a nag?

Til’ death do us part. Without that commitment, we wouldn’t make it through the bad times, which often turn the wet cement of a relationship into the concrete of a union.  So why did we get married?  You guessed it.  We were in love.  We wanted to be together.

Comments

[Edgar]

No one has ever said it better!!