Marriage

I'm invited to a wedding tomorrow and it's had me thinking about marriage.  Everything about marriage seems to have changed since I was a teenager.  In the fortys most teenage girls were thinking about marriage.  Now marriage doesn't seem to be high on their priority list.  Maybe that's not a bad thing.  You shouldn't enter into marriage lightly and the preacher tells you that in the ceremony.   But what is young people's attutude toward
marriage today?  In the old wedding ceremony the preacher said "till death do you part".  Is that part of the ceremony today?  I'll have to listen tomorrow and see.  Maybe it was in the 50's or 60's that people decided if you were n't happy in your marriage then you needed to get out.  Nobody's happy all the time and noboy's marriage is perfect.  They say that 50 per cent of marriages fail today.  When I was growing up I didn't know
anyone who was divorced.  None of the kids I went to school with lived in broken homes.  Is it the times we live in or a different attutude towards marriage and divorce?   I'm definitely not an autority on marriage but I think children would be better off today if their parents felt like marriage was a lifetime commitment that they needed to work at.  Well maybe this marriage tomorrow will be one that will last.

The Coming Winter

I've always thought September was the best month of the year.  I didn't expect 63 degree weather in the middle of the day in September no less.   I guess we're getting a foretaste of the coming winter and I'm not looking forward to winter.  Somehow when you get older  the days seem colder and snow is not something beautiful, it's just something you don't want to get out and shovel.   Am I getting to be a grumpy old woman?
Probably.  Maybe I just need an attitude ajustment.

My Church Family

Sitting in church Sunday morning I thought about the first Sunday we were at this church.  We had just moved to Southern Illinois.  I looked around and thought I do not see Bill & Carol, Elden & Helen, John & Sue and all the close  friends in our church in Andulusia.  I thought this is never going to be home.  When I looked around Sunday I saw the friends that have become dear to me in the last 35 years and thought I really don't want to move out of Dongola.  So many of them have just extended their sympathy at the death of my brother.  These people have over-looked my goofs, standing up one morning on the first verse of a song when the song leader had said the last verse and when I didn't have sense enough to sit back down, like Bill told me to, the congregation stood up with me.  They've supported me through my bout with cancer and Bill's illness and death.  I don't have another 35 years to feel this way about another church.  Maybe I'll just never move out of Dongola.  It would be a hard thing to do.

Poetry

When I was a sophomore in high school, we had to memorize a poem and recite it before the class.  Of course I chose one by Longfellow, my favorite poet.  It was entitled "The Builders".  A classmate recited "I Have A Rendezrous With Death" by Alan Seeger.  At the time I thought, why would
you chose that one.  Since that time I've read that poem many times and I can hear the beauty in it.  We all have a rendezrous with death and none shall fail that rendezrous.

My Brother

I went to the hospital today to see my brother.  He's only one year and four months older than myself.  When he started school, I thought I had to go too.
At home Daddy had a nickname for each one of us and Paul's was Rinky-Dink.
When we were in first or second grade, we had a weiner roast at school and
I couldn't get my weiner on my stick.  So of course I went to Paul, who was
with a group of boys and said, "Rinky-Dink put my weiner on my stick for me."
From that time on his name was Rinky-Dink and when he was older the boys
added Donkey and for some reason they called him Rinky-Dink Donkey.  Of
course they called him that in fun for he was well-liked at school.  Seven boys
in our class and three of them have passed on.  I wonder if those who are left
ever think of him as Rinky-Dink.

Curves

I went with a friend to curves today.  She's several years older than me.  I tried
out most of the machines just a few times.  She was still going at it when I
stumbled out to my car, wondering if I was going to make it through Krogers
long enough to buy my groceries.  Does this mean I'm not in good shape?  I
thought I was doing good for 78.  I guess I'm going to have to do more walking than reading.  Does this mean I need to head for the park every morning or should I just stay at home and morn my condition?