You can keep ‘Happily Ever After’ to yourselves
Genesis 2:24 reads, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Not to be sacrilegious, but Brandon 1:2 states that “Therefore Brandon is OK with being a confirmed bachelor who, after two failed engagements, is pretty content with his life.”
Marriage isn’t for everyone (although my late girlfriend, Bree, had me thinking long and hard about debunking this theory. I’m probably not writing this if she were here). While I know that finding “The One” is a blessing that we should thank God for, there are some of us who feel that marriage is a process of where a circle is trying to fit into a square hole. It is indeed a wonderful feeling that is supposed to give us warm fuzzies and make our heart skip a beat, yet let’s give props to those of us who have had Chris Paul-like court vision to realize that’s not a shot worth taking.
Don’t get me wrong here: I love to see happy couples. Happy couples make me happy. Heck, I still have good relationships with the two women who came to their senses at the last minute and saw that being a high school/college football widow from August to February wasn’t their idea of happily ever after. Not Mrs. Brandon C. Williams II did get married and is happily basking in the glow of being Mrs. Martha Burrows.
Props to him for pulling in what I wasn’t able to.
(My inability to “pull it in” might come as a disappointment to the guys who once played sandlot football with me at a time when there was a consensus that I had the best hands available. Speed? Nah, but target me and there is a 9 in 10 chance I’m catching it. For letting Pirtle and Roosevelt Streets down, I ask forgiveness).
Relationships were one of the final subjects my mother and I talked about before she went to be with the Lord (and my dad, who was probably the first to greet her) almost four years. About a couple of weeks before she passed away, we talked about relationships in her hospital room on a rainy February Sunday afternoon. For the first time, she didn’t buy into my theory of why being single during college football season was a plus. Instead, we finally reached a serious moment.
“All kidding aside, you have so much to offer someone,” she said. “You’re a good man who should go out and find someone to share life with. You don’t have to be alone, so be willing to give it a try. I know you can do it.”
Before departing the room for the night, I promised I’d try.
I just didn’t say when. 😉
What fascinates me is talking to couples and asking the question of “how did you know he/she was The One?” Each answer is a different blend of amazing stories and joyful smiles by the storytellers. From lightbulb moments on a late night in California to a relentless pursuit to an actual “Love at First Sight,” every tale leads to “Happily Ever After Freeway, a drive that constantly drives straight without any pit stops.
A college friend of mine told me, “you just know it when it happens.” Does it feel like the Eagles winning the Super Bowl or me sticking a long range jumper to defeat one of my nephews on NBA 2K22? Does it provide the glow that comes from actually having cartilage in my left shoulder after spending much of the past decade without it?
Eh, who knows. Maybe it will happen. Maybe it doesn’t.
In the meantime, I’ll ponder on trying. Somehow, I think I’ll need some luck…
–30–
Brandon Williams is the Editor of The Post Newspaper.
