Marriage

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Larry Lilly's Letter Thursday August 11, 2005

Groucho Marx said, "I was married by a judge, I should have asked for a jury."

Last week I received a note from a fellow clergyperson that recounted a health food talk show about dangerous foods. Coffee was on the list of dangerous drinks as it creates an acidic imbalance, and some Starbucks places are giving 3 dollar bills as change. Nicotine is said to stay in the system for 20 years. The list went on and on as this type of harangues are known to do, when an old man stood to his feet and lamented the absence in the lecture of the most dangerous food with the longest lasting effect. He claimed to have eaten a piece of wedding cake some 60 years earlier and was still suffering the long term consequences.

For all of the mean things, cute jokes and a rampaging divorce rate, marriage is still considered the best way to begin and nurture families.

The Nazis under Hitler and Communists under Stalin experimented with the concept of having the 'village' raise children in collectives or communes and the experiment, predictably failed. Our own country, the beloved, United States, has experimented with similar concepts, all which diminish the power and influence of the nuclear family, these mechanism are failing and miserably so.

The initial and ultimate earthly responsibility for providing for children is placed on the shoulders of the father. A father who shirks this responsibility is said to be worse than an infidel and a denier of the faith of Christ. A mother who is so preoccupied with her career at the expense of her children learning the art of nurturing and the tenderness of a mother's heart is missing one of the great wonders of life. For fathers and mothers to lay these great, eternally rewarding responsibilities at the feet of society at large is a major cause of the neuroticism of our time. I am sure it will compound even more in the coming years.

In spite of the opening complaint of Mr. Marx, I like to remember and tell of folks who have enjoyed the blessing of growing old together. The Great Blonde always likes for me to refer to us as growing together, the old part is for others. I honestly do not believe that said Blonde will ever get old, just better. Most people who knew us back when we ate the fatal cake at our reception thought surely one would kill the other and spend their life in the pokey. We came close a few times, especially her, but her cooler head prevailed, not out of any great religious compulsion mind you, but the certain knowledge that stripes do not look good on her. So, I live.

I did hear a grandchild say to her infuriated mother, "Why can't you be like Grammy?"

In time dear child, in time.

Larry Lilly Copyright 2005 Use with credit.

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