The Long Haul

I asked Morgan a week or so ago if he felt any different when he's out and about now that he's married. He thought about it for a minute and then said, "no, not really." I have to admit, I was a little surprised. He said that he's felt like he was "taken" long enough that it wasn't really a change to him.

I do feel different, though. It's hard to explain or justify, and while I wouldn't say that I feel any more committed to him than I did before the wedding, I do feel more visibly committed to him. We have rings. We have the same last name. We are "husband" and "wife" instead of "boyfriend" and "girlfriend." We would have to go through legal outlets to change what we are to each other. Maybe it's more feeling like we're perceived differently than we were before.

With all the talk about divorce rates and proclamations that marriage is dead, it can sometimes seem like the act of getting married is pointless except from a dry, legal standpoint. The media loves doom and gloom - whatever blah blah statistic of marriages end in divorce, and blah blah percentage think getting married is hopelessly outdated. But for all the publicity the Arnold Schwarzenegger-Maria Shriver story about a marriage ending after 25 years receives, there are the stories like Gabrielle Giffords and Mark Kelly if you look for them. (While he is on the final shuttle mission, he has taken her wedding ring with him and left his with her on Earth. And that's not even getting into how much he's stood by her since her shooting.)


Statistics be damned - I'm in it for the long haul, whatever that may entail. I can't wait to see those anniversaries start to stack up. My grandparents made it to 46 years, and although we're getting a later start, it might still happen, right?