Over the last 10 years of my life, I've been to many weddings and seen many friends "become one" with their spouses in different ways. In the same way that there are personality and "what kind of drunk are you" tests all over magazines and the internet these days, I wonder what kind of married I would be.
As I look around at some other single friends who have similarly thrown their share of rice for their friends, I realize I have a luxury of knowing people who will always value reaching out to others. It was true when they were single, and it continues to be true in marriage. So though life has brought them through different seasons -- marriage, babies, children -- I am grateful that I have those friends that continue to be in my life, and communicate that my friendship as a single person is just as valuable as that of another married. I know some have lost almost all contact with their married friends, further impressing on us the unnecessary barrier between married and single people.
I understand that sometimes we grow apart from people we were once close with as God takes us into new things and new community experiences. I also know some personalities only have so much social energy to expend before they just need to shift into down time. But if marriage is in the cards for me someday -- which it may or may not be -- I have decided that for my own health and sanity, I hope to be the kind that breaks down walls between singles and marrieds, and reminds my single friends that marriage is no fantasy where all of your wildest dreams come true. And that I still need them. As a single person, it has been invaluable to me to have a window into real married life to help shatter those false images of fantasy that have so been indoctrinated in us.
Of course, if I never get married, there is no such issue to resolve. I'll add that to my singleness "pros" list.
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