第十一章 Track 11 不会再独自出海航行
Track 11 You won’t be sitting sail alone
My dear granddaughter, cagily. You’ve been on my mind ever since the ship left New York. And I know why. You are exactly the age I was---two months short of your twentieth birthday---When papa John and I were married fifty years ago. But it’s what happened on broad this morning that’s brought me down to our stateroom to write to you. Today one of the events in the schedule caught our eyes: 11 am. Renewal of marriage vows. the yacht club. The couple could face each other and answer I do to the traditional promises. Of cause, carily. My mind went at once to a conversation you and I had at Christmas time. You said: I might fall in love someday, grand. But I will never take a chance of marriage. I understood that reaction, with partnership so flu today.
I remember you telling me when you are in high school, that all your friends were in a rush bill have two Christmas, one with their mother, one with their father. Never earth does old marriage to take a message to young people today. Can we really, I wonder, can our experience mean anything now? So much has changed. In 1947, you traveled by ship because that was the way you got to Europe. You married because that was the way two people in love could live together. Today, going by ship is an option, traditional and romantic. But you can get where you are going quicker and cheaper by air. You can get seemly everything marriage offers quicker and cheaper too. So why get married? What makes marriage any different from living significant the other? Most of the weddings we attend recently have been between couples who’ve live together for years. When they take the formal step of the marriage, does anything change? I think it does. And I think the change is precisely the making of promises.
Promises are a scary thing. To keep them means relinquishing some of our freedom; to break them means losing some of our integrity. Though we have to make them today, promises are all about tomorrow. And the only thing we know for sure about tomorrow is that we don’t know anything for sure. The power of a promise is that keeps partners together while the tough time turns into healing, closeness and deep in love. If we drop in and out of our relationships, we don’t stick around quite long enough to allow these good things to happen. Don’t be afraid, clary. If you fall in love with somebody, to make that life long commitment. That two of you will not be sitting sail alone. |