Last week we looked at what I called the “Cons” or negative assumptions about marriage. This week, we will look at some “Pros” or positive assumptions that one can make about marriage. I offer both sets of assumptions with the thought in mind that “The truth will set you free.” Marriage is not all sweet and sugar but neither is it all sour and vinegar. A good marriage has its ups and downs but a really happy marriage will have more ups than downs. Most happy marriages are based on a set of realistic assumptions concerning what marriage is all about and what it takes to make a good marriage.
- Marriage is a means by which two people can in time learn the true meaning of love.
Most of us are pretty young when we get married. With the exception of second marriages, where naiveté can be attributed to a rebound effect, most naiveté in a first marriage is due to youth and inexperience. Many second marriages show that often older people are no wiser than younger people. Love in a first marriage is more about passion and infatuation than about true love. Saying “I love you” about someone you hardly know means about the same as saying “I love my new car.” You cannot really love anything or anyone until you have some history with that person.
Love is a learned trait. Most of the time, we use love in a very simplistic and general manner. Jesus said “True love is the willingness to lay down your life for another.” I disagree with this definition. I think this kind of love can be a form of courage or bravado even without any notion of love whatsoever. How can you love anyone whom you do not know? I might be willing to risk my life to save someone who is drowning in a frozen lake, but it would be ridiculous to think I love that person.
True love is closer to a passion that is based on respect and admiration and gratitude. When you first marry anyone, all three of these traits may only exist in very rudimentary states. Time and shared experience help bring more perspective to each of them. Over time, we begin to respect each other as we learn more about each other and how we treat life. We begin to admire our partners more as we see how they cope with problems and as we both sacrifice our own needs for the good of each other. Gratitude is the highest state of love in a marriage. When you are truly grateful for your partner and when you feel this gratitude in your entire being, you have arrived at the shore of true love.
“True love doesn’t happen right away; it’s an ever-growing process. It develops after you’ve gone through many ups and downs, when you’ve suffered together, cried together, laughed together.” — Ricardo Montalban
- Marriage is a system for raising a new generation that will carry on the best values of the old generation.
Parents have a responsibility to raise children who have sound moral, ethical and personal values. Each new generation builds on the shoulders of previous generations. It would be foolish to think that the values of the past should all be the values of the next generation. The needs of each new generation demand new values to cope with problems and issues that could not have been foreseen by previous generations. Nevertheless, there are many values and ideas from the past that an emerging generation should have knowledge and insight of. Lessons from the past can help to inform the future and mistakes from the past can still have meaning and relevance to issues that are current today.
Parents have an obligation to help insure that any children that they are responsible for, whether adopted, natural birth or foster children, learn a set of values that will help them to be people who understand the concepts of discipline and integrity. Too many parents see their children as means to their own end or as “mini” friends. Helicopter parents, soccer moms and sports dads are all manifestations of parents who have little idea about their real obligations towards their children. Such parents want to be “best” friends with their children instead of fathers and mothers. Even worse, are the parents who want to live vicariously through their children and dream that their kids will live the lives that they wanted to live.
“To let them go on believing that the world is safe, that they will be provided for and achieve worthwhile things even if they remain stupid, shirk integrity, despise courtesy, and act only from self-interest, that they ought to rely on those stronger, smarter, and more able to solve their problems, would be the gravest disservice: to them, and to society as a whole.” — J. Aleksandr Wootton
- Marriage is a potpourri of passion, ecstasy, happiness, sadness, grief, anger and challenge.
I may be repeating myself here, but I want to emphasize that all marriages will have good days and bad days. Some of the bad days will be due to poor judgement, selfishness and poor planning. They are days that could have been in the range of your ability to change. Other bad days will have little or nothing to do with you. Friends will die. Relatives will get sick. Accidents will happen. You and your partner will grow old. You will have no control over any of these things.
Whether or not you can change things, what matters the most is that you and your partner can support each other through the ups and downs. You need to expect that bad things will happen to good people. When they do, how will you support the other person?
A number of years ago, my wife and I went scuba diving for the first time. We had both received our PADI certification and done a few lake dives. We decided to visit the Caribbean and do some scuba diving there. We went to an island off the coast of Belize called Caye Caulker. We found a dive shop on the island and scheduled a day of diving for a day or so after we arrived. Karen had not had any experience with ocean diving. I had done quite a bit of diving but it was many years before.
We suited up and went down. We were partners on this dive and that meant that we would have each other’s back. Karen has more problems with buoyancy control than I do but we finally got her weights adjusted correctly and down we went. We descended with six or so other divers and the dive master. We had a great time though Karen kept trying to bob up instead of down. When it was clear that we had little oxygen left we decided to come up. We signaled the dive master and most of the group also headed back to the dive boat. We had stayed above 120 feet so the bends were not really a concern. We still wanted to ascend slowly though as it always is a good idea to observe this protocol. I rose with Karen until we reached the surface. The water was pretty choppy on top.
When we hit the surface, I was feeling tired and I headed to the boat. I totally forgot Karen and I took my tanks up and got on the boat. When I looked back to see how Karen was doing, she was still in the water. She was tired and having a hard time getting her tanks off. Some of the other people were in the water and they came to help her. She finally made it back in the boat very tired and exhausted and somewhat scared. I felt really bad. I had deserted her and thought only about myself. It was somewhat hard for me to get out of the water and on the boat by myself but it was next to impossible for Karen. I did not think about her and I felt guilty for the rest of the day. I promised her and myself that from then on, I would make sure she was on the boat before I tried to get out.
It is not always easy to look after another person. It is very easy to put our needs first and our partners needs second. A key dilemma of marriage is how to put both needs first or how to know when one needs to go first and the other can go second. Marriage presents us with endless possibilities to work on this problem. Sometimes we will succeed and sometimes we will fail. However, as with any worthwhile endeavor, the trick is to keep trying, keep working on things and when you fail to try again and to never give up. The effort to care for another person builds trust in a relationship and this trust is the foundation for a good marriage. Layer it with respect, admiration and gratitude for each other and you will live “happily ever after.”
“Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” — I Corinthians 13:7
Time for Questions:
Have you ever been in love? How many times? What do you think love is? What do you think true love is based on? How does one create true love?
Life is just beginning.
“You can trust us to stick to you through thick and thin – to the bitter end. And you can trust us to keep any secret of yours – closer than you yourself keep it. But you cannot trust us to let you face trouble alone, and go off without a word. We are your friends, Frodo.” — ― J.R.R. Tolkien,
Aging Capriciously 