Being married means being part of a team

You are no longer responsible for yourself.  You are part of a unit which you agreed upon (taking a solemn oath or vow.)

Sadly, I think many Americans forgo these promises and continue working independently from the unit.

Am not saying you are your spouse’s keeper.

God no! 😦

What I am saying is that each and every adult out there, who is in a serious and committed relationship, take personal responsibility over themselves, their actions.

With that being said, when those of us, like myself, who’ve been more single than attached, we can sometimes forget that there is another person in the equation. Their happiness, their self-worth becomes entangled with the every-day-to-day doldrums of simply existing.

Though my parents’ marriage was by no means perfect, they stuck together through it all. And, this is the template I go by.

Mom and dad took their vows quite literally, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health.

That’s why I can’t seem to understand how people easily discard the sacred vows they went into freely…eyes wide open.

I’ve been part of team my entire adult life. The military taught me about self-sacrifice for the betterment of the whole. In marriage, we will make sacrifices for our spouses, as long as these acts are not taken for granted.

I see too many couples who settle into a comfortable and habitual day to day married life. The wants of the one outweigh the needs of the two.

When this happens communication is the key. Yes, I’ve beaten up this topic to death on this blog but wow….when it comes to such a sacred institution as marriage, when you love someone……when you truly love them….sacrifices will be made if not today…then tomorrow. And if you feel like your voice isn’t being heard, speak up…being married means being part of a team.

Don’t be that silent partner.

Is it me or are kids today more cyncial and if so why?

I have always taught my daughter to respect her elders and to be polite.  Most of the time she is.  What I have noticed, not from her but from kids her age is that they seem so cynical about life and the way they treat adults (even in the television shows and movies) is with a condescending matter which I do not like.

I feel that today’s youth coupled with the manner in which adults treat them are both at fault here.  I also see the state of the world and even our own country contributing to this cynicism.

Are our children facing a “moral meltdown?”  Is it partly due to the media, our work ethics where we leave kids at home for untold hours during the day due to trying to make ends meet with our ever spiraling downward economy….and when home too exhausted to deal with their issues or to spend quality time?  Are we creating a culture of negativity?  Where is our responsibility to all this?  Children still need our guidance, even teenagers.  Boundaries have to be still in place as to what can and cannot be crossed.  I am not saying be a control freak but to evaluate the situations at hand and deal with them in a consistent manner. I just don’t see kids being as innocent as they used to be.

Sonia Lin puts it quite eloquently from her article:  Combating Cynicism in America by stating:  “Is life beautiful? The question was put to me recently. I don’t know, but life is life and it’s worth living. Irony should play only a slender role in a worthy existence and Jedediah Purdy does well to add another blow to that current American tendency to degrade and denigrate.”

Websites:

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/youth-attitudes/4275898778

http://www.yaleherald.com/archive/xxviii/1999.09.24/opinion/p11cynicism.html