Good morning, Netizens...

Until yesterday it has been decades since I last attended an old-fashioned marriage ceremony. Please note I did not use the word wedding, for that implies the surreal episodes of semi-lackadaisical frolics that precede the ceremony, more white lace than any other events held in a church, far more flowers than are needed for state funerals and the semi-lucid alcoholic overindulgences that follow the reception. Normally the actual ceremony that accompanies these events is anti-climactic, terse and typically quite predictable.

The minister at yesterday's marriage had a coy sense of humor, that crept into the otherwise serious and somewhat lengthy ceremony, like an uninvited but gleefully-accepted friend dropping by the house for a visit. In his comments, the elderly minister stated to the groom, “this is no piece of hamburger you have here. This is prime rib, and you need to understand this.”

Fairly glistening in her white wedding gown, her face glowing with that mysterious radiance that spread from face-to-face among the onlookers, the lovely bride yesterday had struggled and fought a good fight to end up at the altar with a good man, but as bride and groom stood there before the minister, the battle was over, and a greater combat began.

Marriage is a process of bonding two lives into one, creating a world of give-and-take, and nothing could be closer to the truth in my opinion. In this complex and mind-altering world we live in, when you take two diverse lives and inexorably bond them into one flesh, one mind and one heart, you are asking a miracle to be performed. Given the statistics of marriage and divorce, it appears that sometimes the miracle simply fades over time. The bond falls asunder and the ugliness of divorce takes over.

In my most-quiet moments, if I had a simple prayer to say from this time forward, I would pray that my friend Mel and her newly-conjoined husband live long and prosperous lives, and that they have children who, someday may hear about how their mother and mother, stood before the altar, anxious to be off on their lives together, but willing to hear the admonishments and comments of an old minister full of wisdom.

Perhaps they will tell their children how, at the altar, Mel was a 'piece of prime rib' and should always be respected and loved. For if you build a marriage on solid rock, with just a twist of humor to make one smile when things get rough, they will live long and contented lives.

Dave

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