State of society

WARNING: the following may be considered insulting or condemning to some, and I absolutely do not mean for it to be taken that way! If I offend you with what I write here, please forgive me - that is not my intent. I'm speaking generally, not to specific instances. With that warning, I will proceed.

Hmm... I just noticed the text on one of the Facebook "meet people" (dating-type) ads. (NOTE: I am happily married and normally don't even pay attention to these; I was in Mob Wars, waiting on some health to regenerate, and noticed the line: "Meet cool and hot people" - and did a second glance because of the "cool and hot" part since I hadn't really read it, just sort of noticed it.) I read the remainder of the text, to see if they had any other strange phrases, and read this: "Single or taken, you have an option here." Really? Is that where our society has come? Now the online personal ads sites are no longer targeting just singles, they're blatantly appealing to "taken" people as well (I assume this includes relationships both with and without wedding vows). What has happened to the sanctity of marriage, the commitment we make (you know, the "until death parts us" thing)? Please note: I'm not trying to condemn anyone who's been through a divorce - that is not the point of this post. What I'm getting at (or trying to, anyway) is the lack of respect for the institution of marriage in "modern" society.

It seems that marriage has lost the status it once held, the status that it was intended to hold. "From the beginning it has not been this way." "Male and female he [God] created them." "A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one." Marriage is a special bond between two humans; it should be treated with the respect that God gave it, not like (for instance) a contract between a sports figure and his team, where the team may decide to shop around and trade the player for another (ok, this may be a bad analogy since the sports contract is a limited term, while a marriage contract is - or is supposed to be - for life; however, the point can also be made that the marriage contract isn't like the sports contract in that it isn't supposed to expire after a limiter number of years). Again, I'm not trying to be condemning, nor do I speak to specific cases. I am speaking generally: it seems marriage has lost its status, to the point that even "personal ad sites" are now advertising to those "taken" - in a relationship - that there are "options" available. That is my point and my concern. That is where we need to make a difference: in the mindset of the general population. (I have other things I could say, such as how humans are intended to be different than... well, nevermind, that might really be considered offensive some.)

I hope I haven't offended you; that wasn't my intent. Besides, if you leave, then there will only be one or two readers left. :) Oh, and let me say: I'm happily married, have been for 16+ years (it'll be 17 in May), and intend to keep it this way for as long as we're both around.

On a lighter note, I just noticed there is a freeze warning in effect for this evening. In Alabama in April! Then again, I do recall one year in Birmingham where we had a 5" snow in April, so I guess these things do happen. Anyway... freeze warning in April in the south... I'm sure "human induced global warming" has something to do with that. :) (Yes, I'm being facetious. If you're new to the blog, go back and read some old posts for my opinion about "human created" global warming. I'd suggest you take a look at the label cloud, but it isn't working at the moment, not really sure why, but I don't have time to look at it right now. Especially after writing all of this!) Have a great week!