Gay Marriage: Clearing the Aisles
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There is no point in decrying the absurdist argument — heard just again in New York — that children require parentage of both sexes, in order to mature properly. That line of reasoning is as founded in reality as the medieval cure of sprinkling vinegar to dispel smallpox. Most of us are the children of traditional marriages. Most of us will go to our graves understanding nothing about the human condition, at least as pertaining to how males and females should interact, save a hazy sense that someone, somewhere, is always misunderstood, wronged, impossible, hateful, wants out, or wanted in with someone they couldn’t get. Score one, then, for gays.

Yet, that foolishness aside, what exactly remains to sanctify traditional marriage? The question is not rhetorical – I would welcome an answer. For I have in my time attended and/or worked hundreds of weddings. I know of several in the planning stages now, as I am still acquainted with the casualties of those that have occurred, crashed, and burned. I have witnessed in the course of my life a debasement of what marriage is so severe, the regard we give it has subtly and sadly changed. It was once scary. It still is, but for all the wrong reasons.

The idea of marriage should not be pretty. It is far too serious a matter for that. In a sense, the gay marriage movement does right by underlining all the ramifications and benefits bestowed upon the straight couple at the altar, and denied to themselves. This emphasis serves to remind us that, by and large, it is an important contract we’re talking about. A bond between two people and, just as significantly, two people and the state.

But all the players have changed. The statistic we all know so well, that fifty-something percent figure denoting divorce, is loaded with information we are not quite taking in. The evil of generalization is necessary here, yet it is one I make unapologetically. I think of the young couple I know, married to the tune of six figures eight months ago and divorced five months later. I think of another couple, chin-deep in caterers, photographers, plans, and debt, one of whom is undergoing mysterious health problems related to stress. And I recall all the men and women I’ve known who, upon achieving their freedom once more, can’t even say why the thing never worked. Except that their needs weren’t being met.
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