I do....
I've never been what you would call
"athletically inclined". I did
manage to make a basket once when I was on the 6th grade basketball team at
Millville Grade School, when my old buddy Stinky Wilmont yelled "shoot
it" at the final buzzer. Of course, that shot missed the backboard, but I
did manage to hit the first of two free throws I was awarded when a fellow
bench warmer from the opposing team stuck his finger in my eye while he was
blocking my field goal. Even though I was able to cut the margin of our defeat that
game down to 27 points, nobody asked me to play on the 7th grade team the next
year, and what little interest I had in basketball faded quickly away.
And then there was that time I hit a baseball
and made it to second base, but I only hit it because I was flailing at a bee
that was buzzing around my head, and I really only made it to second base
because the bee had turned its attention to Arnold Dinkins, causing him to
abandon the shortstop position. They say that baseball is the "national
pastime". I guess it is for some people, but I don't think they ever
passed law about it. Yet.
We didn't play soccer at Millville back then.
I really didn't know much of anything about the game, and I hadn't ever watched
it until my granddaughters started playing it a while back. I still don't know
much about it, but I heard that more people play soccer than any other game in the
world. I'm guessing that's so they don't have to watch it. Anyway, I know a lot
of people have a higher opinion of basketball, baseball and soccer than I have,
and I'm okay with that, as long as they don't pass some law that forces me to
watch or play. But that's not what I wanted to write about today. I really
wanted to write about marriage.
My wife Susan and I have been married for 36
years. I know I married up, but I'm not sure Susan can say the same thing. And
I'm also pretty sure her dad agreed with me on that point. It was probably one
of the few things we ever agreed on .
We went and bought a marriage license from
the State of Ohio before we got married, because somebody told us we had to. I
didn't think about it much at the time, but looking back, I wonder if it was
really necessary. I guess we just accepted that it had always been that way. I
found out later on that government involvement in marriage is a relatively new
development. It didn't actually get heavily involved in the marriage business
until the 19th and 20th centuries, and then only to control or prohibit
inter-racial marriages, and maintain racial purity. For the most part, that's
not really a problem most people really feel needs to be controlled anymore,
but like most things the government gets involved in, it tends to hang around
even when most people don't see its need or usefulness anymore.
Nowadays, a lot of politicians from President
Obama on down, are scrambling to come up with the most acceptable opinion on
gay marriage. I guess that's what politicians are supposed to do, but I'm not
sure that's what they ought to do.
When it comes to same sex marriage, I'll be
the first to admit I don't understand the attraction. I guess we never gave it
a lot of thought back at Millville. I
have several friends that are gay, and I also have several friends that are
Republicans and Democrats. (I don't understand the attraction there,
either.) And while I might not
understand why some people are attracted to it, neither can I understand why
some people are so opposed to it. Apparently some people have religious and
moral objections, but some people who
favor it cite religious and moral reasons themselves.
Now, I'm just real happy that so many people
have religious and moral convictions, but I never thought I wanted the
government to define them for us. I suppose it wouldn't really be a problem as
long as the good guys are elected and running things, but as about half of the
population will testify at any given time, that doesn't always happen.
The problem with getting the government
involved in anything is that opinion so often becomes law, and law always
involves force. In reality, government has no more business telling consenting
adults what type of relationship they can have, than it has telling other
adults that they have to accept a relationship they don't approve of. Or
telling someone they have to play soccer. Or worse yet, watch it.
The only involvement government should have in
marriage is to make sure that contractual obligations are upheld if the need
arises.
I don't know if you agree with that or not,
but I've been married for 36 years, and I do.
Labels: government, Libertarian, Marriage