Marriage Is...

I have finished my series on grace. I will begin a new series next week. As has become my custom, in the week between series I like to publish something else I have written, some stand alone piece. Sometimes this is poetry, sometimes prose. Today is a bit of both. The year Mandy and I got married the subject of marriage occupied my mind very much, naturally. We were married in December of that year. A few weeks prior to our wedding I sat down and wrote a description of what I believed marriage to be, went to Kinko's, had five copies printed and framed, and gave them to my siblings and parents on Christmas Day. Nearly twenty years later I find these descriptions truer then ever. Here then is what I think marriage is.

Marriage is the knitting of two souls into one blanket that keeps out the chill of life.

Marriage is the exchanging of loneliness for the richness of companionship.

Marriage is independence becoming dependent.

Marriage is having two carry the burden meant for one.

Marriage is multiplying your joy while dividing your sorrow.

Marriage is not the absence of disagreement but the presence of compromise.

Marriage is trust given and trust returned.

Marriage is the pooling of resources and the evaporation of selfishness.

Marriage is God’s plan for a wonderful life.

Marriage is the best of both worlds.

Marriage is a foretaste of glory divine.

Marriage is hard work.

Marriage is having someone to read the map while you drive.

Marriage is the poetry of two entwined lives melding into one.

Marriage is the combination of strength and beauty.

Marriage is apologizing, not because you are wrong, but because you hurt the love of your life.

Marriage is trading McDonald’s for a delicious meal.

Marriage is the multiplying of love with the addition of wrinkles.

Marriage is the creating of two smiles where there had been none.

Marriage is the acceptance of responsibility and the abdication of foolishness.

Marriage is always having someone to button the back of your dress.

Marriage is always having someone to pick the lint off your suit.

Marriage is coming home to a kiss instead of an empty house.

Marriage is having someone care how you feel, what you think, and where you are.

Marriage is finally being allowed to use mistletoe for its intended purpose.

Marriage is two nuts becoming a single tree.

Marriage is the joining of souls in twin bodies.

Marriage is the discovery and exploration of the fascinating world that is the other gender.

Marriage is the union of similar differences.

Marriage is the bringing of Heaven to Earth.

Marriage is not an experiment, but a commitment.

Marriage is sometimes leading and sometimes following, but always loving.

Marriage is the utter revocation of others and the utter acceptance of one.

Marriage is the anchor around which successful lives navigate.

Marriage is the lifelong opportunity of living for someone else.

Marriage is giving yourself away unconditionally.

Marriage is not the spice of life but rather the main course.

Marriage is not the ignoring of flaws but the acceptance of the flawed one.

Marriage is the greatest test of character in the world.

Marriage is fun.

Marriage is sadly becoming old-fashioned.

Marriage is Christianity in work clothes.

Marriage is the completion of two incomplete people.

Marriage is privilege accompanied by responsibility.

Marriage is not fifty fifty but hundred hundred.

Marriage is rewarding.

Marriage is the most important earthly decision of our lives.

Marriage is for better for worse, in sickness and in health, til death do you part.

Marriage is learning to enjoy shopping because of who you are with.

Marriage is learning to enjoy football because of who you are with.

Marriage is being convinced you got the best of the catch.

Marriage is doing all you can to be the best of the catch.

Marriage is the proper balance of needs and wants, namely you want to give them whatever they need.

Marriage is two walking together because they are agreed.

Marriage is growing old along with me; the best is yet to be.

Marriage is the weave that keeps the fabric of our society from unraveling.

Marriage is having someone to pat you on the back instead of breaking your arm doing it yourself.

Marriage is adding a rose to the thorns of life.

Marriage is an obligation of delight.

Marriage is the cornerstone upon which civilization rests.

Marriage is a good life's work.

Marriage is the other half of yourself.

Marriage is forever.

-by Tom Brennan

Christmas, 1999