You meet someone. You
are attracted to them. You love them. You do the whole wedding shebang thing. Married.
And then you live together.
Or you live together first and then get married. But key is the marriage ceremony thingini happens
and then the living together. You must
be married first, for you to realise that you married a stranger.
Because after some time, and this has nothing to do with the
honeymoon stage, or the 7 year itch, or the 10 year hurdle, you look at your
partner and realise, crap – who the hell is this. Who did I get married to. Who am I living with. Who did I hitch up my wagon to. All my wagons. Holyshitthisiscrazy. I have no clue who this person is. What in ternation am I doing here. Blistering barnacles. Someone send in the marines. Oh merrrn. What am I going to do. Was I insane.
No way. This cannot be hapn’ng to
me. No way.
Yep. It always
happens. The person you married is not
the person you are with today. You
married the wrong person. Imagine
that.
And then you go through the whole anger, acceptance and etc
cycle. The sooner you go through the
cycle the sooner you get over it and the better it is for you. And the married other.
And unless the married other is psychotic, [and sometimes it’s
very hard to know if they are not,] you will be okay. Because you need to get the stranger
programme out, and run it. You have to
become the Good Samaritan. The married
Samaritan. On your road to Jericho.
Compassion. And
love. To the stranger you married. This is the first placed person, the priority
person, in your life who is in dire need of assistance. If you are ever going to help your neighbour,
the time is this coz the neighbour’s in your bed. Love your neighbour as your love yourself. And the neighbour is right here – your stranger,
your married other.
Yes – you must to love the stranger you married. Love.
And giving. Over and beyond the
minimum required. Loving and giving
generously.
Forsake the hardness of your heart. Breaking your selfishness. And give.
And love. And through this, achieve
your destination.
We never know whom we
marry; we just think we do. Or even if
we first marry the right person, just give it a while and he or she will
change. For in marriage, #being [the enormous
thing it is] means we are not the same person aftwer we have entered it. The primary challenge if marriage is learning
how to love and care for the sranger to whom you find yourself married.....
Stanley Hauerwas
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