The Marriage-Mobile

Hello, internet!

Good golly, this article really got my goat. Not only do I disagree with just about everything in it, but the author bent fact to suit his needs. For example: “In absolute numbers, there are more white children growing up in single-parent households than black children.” Well, duh! There are more white kids overall than black kids. Percentage-wise, the very opposite is true. Santorum did this kind of thing repeatedly.

So let’s not talk about him. Let’s talk about Dr. Wade Horn, and his metaphorical airplanes. I don’t like his analogy. I think it’s totally off. The processes of raising children are not all identical trips to the same pre-defined place. Marriages aren’t “yes” or “no” things. True, there are definitely “successful” marriages, and there are definitely “failed” marriages. We call those “divorces”. But there are all other sorts of marriages. It’s not even a gradated scale from point A to point B. I think of it more as a three dimensional object that you can climb around.

Let me come up with a more accurate metaphor...

OK, got one.

Marriage to me is like two people painting a picture together: a team. Both people have to work well together and be able to cooperate. The success of their marriage is judged on the artfulness of their picture. There are some that have obviously succeeded, and some that have obviously failed. But other than those sad outliers, just about every other picture is up for interpretation. I may not like couple x’s picture, but they may love it and feel incredibly proud about it.

Furthermore, to extend my metaphor and go way over my word limit, just because I don’t like couple x’s painting or I think it’s pretty ugly doesn’t mean I have the right to tell them to never paint again. If they both really like their picture, then they’re free to hang it in their living room and look at it all the time. They may not win any awards for it, but I can’t stop them from keeping the picture.

OK. That’s the end of my rant. Good bye!