Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Living, Loving, Lather, Rinse, Repeat

My sister-in-law has suggested that the true last gasp of any relationship is the "renewal of vows." I agree with her, for the most part, since it does seem like a fairly desperate measure to rekindle whatever flames of passion may have flickered and failed. I know what it takes to get a wedding up off the ground and running, so I cannot imagine why anyone would willingly put themselves through an historical reenactment of that sort of armed conflict.
This being said, I know that there are lots of reasons to imagine having a "do-over" for one's wedding day. I know that I have spent thirteen years with a revisionist. The convertible could have been a stallion instead. The dance floor should have been bigger. The groom's pants should have arrived before the ceremony. The rings might have been more useful attached to our official ring-pillow than locked away in my mother-in-law's closet. Mistakes were made. You'll get no argument from me there. The old adage "Bad rehearsal, great performance" comes to mind. If that day in the sun was just a warm-up for the next few decades of marital bliss, then by that reckoning, we had just the right start. The ancient Greeks always included a flaw in their art so as not to anger or offend the Gods. I believe it is pure hubris to expect a wedding not to take on certain aspects of a public transportation catastrophe. We should only judge our success by the number of people left standing at the end of the day.
Thirteen years ago, everybody was able to walk away. That sounds like a success to me.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

...marriage is an institution and love is blind. Therefore,marriage is an institution for the blind.

DEC

Kristen Caven said...

I have no idea what you're talking about. (Five, ten years ago I might have...)