What Do You Think?

    I stumbled across this blog "Why I Bother to Get Married at Age 40" (http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/josey-vogels/marriage-later-in-life_b_935078.html)while researching just what type of blog would intrigue me. Call me crazy, but I was looking at a blog about the royal wedding, and was linked to this one. I read through it and was intrigued by Vogels’ narrative of her experience with the events leading to her wedding and a brief time after, but the real thing that made this blog memorable was her closing line.

    Josey Vogels chronologically narrates the story of this part of her relationship, starting with her own doubts about the whole point of getting married, especially at her "ripe old age" of 40. She thought originally (prodded on by a friend and by her sister’s mother-in-law) that marriage was “just a slip of paper” and that all it did was tie you down legally and financially and set you up for a divorce later.

Vogels then moves on to tell how her viewpoint on marriage began to change, though slightly. After she and her soon-to-be-husband were engaged, she found a thrill (almost a girlish giddiness) in telling complete strangers that she was getting married. And she was fascinated by their responses. Passers-by offered congratulations and added to her bewilderment.

    Then Josey explains the inquisitive state she found herself in. What made complete strangers want to share in her happiness? Why would some people spend so much on one day just to throw away all those memories after a few years? Was there any sacredness still attached to marriage? Or was it passed off as a hassle for some or an excuse for a big party for others? Even on her own wedding day, Josey admits, that they just did what felt right and she couldn’t explain why they did it. She and her fiancé just chose to get married…because.

    Not until the end of the blog are her feelings revealed. She is still unsure about why exactly she got married, but she felt a sort of finality in her relationship. She found that a piece of paper isn’t what makes a marriage a marriage, but the fact that you are officially in a relationship with someone, with more authority than just a Facebook update. Vogels still finds it difficult to define exactly what it is that feels so different but she ends with what I consider to be a great closing statement. She asks the reader to consider their own viewpoint on the topic she wrote about. It causes the reader to actually ponder what they read instead of just letting it wash over them and ebb away with the next thing they read.

-Megan Lusdorf