It looks easy until you try it; 50 years and counting
by Hobie Morris
Marriage is like twirling a baton, turning handsprings or eating with chopsticks…
– Helen Rowland
Fifty years!!! I’ll be lucky to make 50 days!
A newlywed at a convenience store check-out counter, on hearing about our wedding celebration
(Brookfield) In early July, my beautiful and vivacious wife and I happily celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary. Commenting on his 43rd anniversary in 1959, then-President Dwight Eisenhower said, “…a successful marriage I think gets happier as the years go by.” Anna Chennault expressed similar sentiments in describing her romance and marriage to General Claire Chennault. “…my love for him was unchanging love, high and deep, free and faithful, strong as death. Each year I learned to love him more and more.”Lois and I are still in our honeymoon
Lois and I are still in our honeymoon bliss.
Successfully melding two often dissimilar people and personalities into one is an amazing triumph, especially in our present age. It has been graphically written that “marriage is work, sometimes gritty, sweaty, uncomfortable work. In fact the degree of difficulty successfully combining two lives ranks somewhere like rerouting a hurricane and finding a parking place in downtown Manhattan.”
I’ve always found it fascinating how people find their true loves. With a world population of approximately 6.7 billion people, how do you find your special one in this mass? Consider the potential number of pairs of two in 6.7 billion. To find that perfect match you would have to examine each and every possible match. And this is where the story gets humongous. There are 28 million times more romantic possibilities than there are stars in the Milky Way. If God spent one minute evaluating each mate before assigning people their spouses, the procedure would take 21.3 trillion years to complete.
May I suggest two nuggets of advice for marital happiness and longevity. The French writer Andre Maurois advises “a successful marriage is an edifice that must be rebuilt every day.” In his book MY LITTLE CHURCH AROUND THE CORNER Randolph Ray has written, “I would like to have engraved inside every wedding band: ‘Be kind to one another’—this is the golden rule of marriage and the secret of making love lasts through the years.”
My musically gifted wife Lois has been the church organist at the historic, pre-Civil War Baptist Church here in Brookfield. She has beautifully played the 65-year- old Conn organ for many weddings over the last 23 years. One year she played two weddings in one day. In total Lois probably played over 100 songs that day, including prelude, postlude and ceremony requests.
Can you imagine these beautiful weddings without music? Especially music from the “King of Instruments.” This simple country man had the best seat in the house. Since I turn Lois’ music as well as watch for the different participants to begin the trip down the aisle.
With the service over I quietly slip into the vestibule and begin pulling the thick rope attached to the huge cast iron bell high in the church steeple. A perfect capstone celebrating the union of two young lives, a country tradition that has taken place many hundreds of times since before the Civil War. I’m extremely proud of Lois and the joy and beauty she has brought to young starry-eyed couple beginning their journey of life together. We pray that they too one day will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.
As we quietly leave by the back door, a now empty and silent church, I look lovingly at Lois reminding this simple country man of what Winston Churchill wrote of his Winnie “my most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me.”
“Mine too, Winston.”
Editor’s note: Hobie Morris is a longtime Brookfield resident and simple country man. He can be reached at madnews@m3pmedia.com.