Today we made a quick tip to the grocery store to pick up a
few things in advance of a weather warning, including makings for sandwiches in
case the electricity gets blinky or just because this local store has really
good ham. We did our usual
find-and-consult routine, got what we wanted and were checking out, when we
picked up on the conversation between our checker, a fairly mature woman, and a
young man checking at the next register.
While I was fishing something out of my purse, the young man was saying
he didn’t ever plan to get married because he wanted to get and stay
financially stable, and the woman was teasing him that a cute young thing would
come along and change his mind. To which
he replied that what did he know, he was only twenty-two.
Standing there with my mate of over four decades, I couldn’t
help but laugh, and pointed out that statistics indicate that married men live
longer. “Although”, I continued, “some
would say it only seems that they live longer.”
We all laughed and went about the business at hand, but there was so
much more I wanted to share, if the time and situation had been appropriate. For instance, sure, most young couples start
out with very tight budgets or even with less than that. And sure, some couples have one or both in
the partnership who are spendthrifts, who incur mindless debt. Of course, single folks have been known to be
foolish, as well. But it doesn’t have to
be that way. I wanted to tell him that
marriage can also mean two people working together for their future, enduring
the difficult times, making choices together, sharing the joy, and building
whatever stability is possible in a world that never has been, is not, and never
will be fully secure or easy.
I didn’t have the time or opportunity to tell him all of
this, but it doesn’t matter. Whatever
life lessons this young one has to learn, he must learn for himself, and
neither we nor anyone can teach him. One
could say that experience only comes from experience.
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