Let me preface the following column with somewhat of a disclaimer. My mother’s job with a major airline has afforded me free flights for most of my life and in my travels I have met some interesting people. From typecast “guidos” in Jersey or intimidating hotel security in Mazatlan, Mexico to snobby French girls with misleading smiles in Amsterdam. This holiday weekend, I’m sitting at a computer workstation in the lobby of a Holiday Inn Express in Springdale, Ohio, where I came face-to-face with a newlywed couple that made me really thankful for what I have. Let’s be honest, that’s what this holiday is about right? Wrong! It’s about turkey and stealing land.
However, I hope this column makes you give rushing into marriage another thought.
A newlywed bride and groom approach the front desk to check-in. Normally, I would continue to mind my own business, but their obnoxiously loud voices get my attention. In between drunken giggles, the couple is attempting to check in when all of a sudden they meet their first obstacle in the long marital journey ahead of them. The groom seems to have misplaced his wallet. Instantly, this pivotal mistake of manhood throws his lovely bride into hysterics.
The bespectacled boy who got stuck working the graveyard shift nervously tries to diffuse the situation, offering alternatives for checking in and eventually calms the two of them down enough to figure out that the room has already been paid for. I return to my work and let the little episode slip from my memory.
About 30 minutes goes by and once again, the couple has noisily traipsed back into the lobby, nearly taking out the fake Christmas tree on their way in. The bride returns to the front desk and just as our eyes meet, the groom, now donning some sweatpants and a Bengals jersey approaches me. He informs me that he has just gotten married to a woman that he has been dating for eight months. I congratulate the man, shake his hand and he tells me they are about to trek across the street to McDonald’s. As I’m about to suggest that he tries the McRib, the bride begins screaming at her new husband for not meeting her at the door, as she is now ready to leave. The two bicker loudly, back and forth across the lobby for a few moments before the groom, shakes my hand, rolls his eyes and follows his true love out into the cold night.
Now, I promise you, 540 words later, that there is a point to this story. I think this couple is a perfect example of people rushing into marriage, not giving it any thought or regard. I find it ironic that some of us oppose same-sex marriage, or at least consider it a “sacred union between a man and a woman” when the divorce rate is nearing 50 percent. Too many couples today are getting married without really preparing themselves for the commitment and once it’s time to draw up the divorce, not only do feelings get hurt, but also these people are forced to make real decisions. Who will take over the unaffordable mortgage payments? Alimony? Or worse, who will get custody of the kids, now that we both want to live the single life?
If people put more time into making such a pivotal decision as this one, there would be fewer unhappy couples spending their honeymoon in a Holiday Inn Express and going to McDonald’s at all hours of the night.
Share your holiday stories with Ben at bkarris@asu.edu
