M@RR!@&£

As time goes on I'm meeting more and more people who now consider marriage a swear word. If that's you, I don't usually swear, forgive me.

In some instances talk of marriage has gotten me scowls, 'ewwwws' and 'yucks'. I wasn't talking about it in relation to me by the way, just generally. A girl posted a tweet which made me question whether she ever wanted to get married. Turns out she's one of the 'yuckers'. Somewhere along the way the image of marriage in some peoples' heads has been tarnished to look more like a curse than a blessing.

Well, I have grown up having a fantastic image of marriage (I don't care if fantastic comes from fantasy). I've witnessed via my parents and others how beautiful it can be. It doesn't all have to be stress and restrictions as is the view seemingly in fashion now. Everything in life takes effort, sometimes you don't feel the effort because you enjoy doing certain things or you're just used to them, but effort is being put in regardless.

I had a conversation with a friend who said this: "Both being in a relationship and being single are hard". So true but it made me laugh because it sounded like she wasn't sure if she wanted to be either right now. Maybe this is the view of these 'ewwwers' and 'yuckers', I don't know, just simulating. You can only be one or the other. Some people have told me that they don't want to get married but they do want to live with their partner. To me this makes no sense *shrugs*.

Anyway, bottom line is my parents have proved to me that marriage is not in vain. It can work, it does work. Tomorrow they will be having a party to celebrate 25 years of marriage. I take my hat off to them. If I have a marriage anything like theirs I'll be a blessed man. (Not that I'm not a blessed man now of course :D).

Marriage is the way forward whether you like it or yes.

Toodles.