What is a Successful Marriage?

What is a Successful Marriage?

In today’s society, marriages that last a lifetime seem few and far between.  So many marriages end in divorce , in fact, there were  26, 577 divorces in the province of Ontario in 2001, and it is said that the fourth year of marriage is now considered the most likely year for a couple to divorce.  What has happened to people’s views of marriage?  My maternal grandparents (Grammie & Grampie) were married over 50 years, and my paternal grandparents (Oma & Opa) survived 60 years of marriage, as did Oma’s parents.  My in-laws also had a long lasting marriage of 41 years.  Are people choosing to believe that marriage is supposed to be easy?  Or has society’s views on marriage changed that drastically over the past 50 years?  Could people’s views on monogamy or spousal abuse play a factor?  Since most of today’s marriages are unlikely to survive the fourth year, I ask, exactly what constitutes a successful marriage?  Is it the 5 year mark? Or it is 10, 15, or 20 years?  Are the only successful marriages the ones ended only by death?  I think it is possible for a marriage to end in divorce but still be considered successful.  Ultimately I think a true measure of a successful marriage is not the duration, but the quality of the relationship in question.  If a couple can get divorced but salvage a long-lasting and genuine friendship, and continue to raise a strong family shouldn’t that relationship be considered successful?  I have very high hopes for my husband and me, and I hope that our families history of long-lasting marriages will work in our favour, but most of all I hope to strong and well-balance family.  I wonder what I’ll look like after 60 years of marriage.  Will I still be beautiful to my husband?  I hope so!

Word Count: 307

To see some statistics about divorce in Canada: Divorce Statistics in Canada (2001)

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Have you ever seen the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding?  I recently re-watched this movie, for about the tenth time.  In this movie, Toula is a first generation American whose parents immigrated from Greece.   Her family, like many immigrant families, has continued to honour their ethnic culture.  The movie light-heartedly pokes fun at Toula’s family, and their attachment to their heritage.  Growing up, she lived in a house with Greek architecture,   her parents spoke Greek in the home, and the kids went to Greek school.  Family get-togethers included all of her extended family, aunts, uncles, cousins, everyone!  Toula is expected to marry Greek, make Greek babies, and feed everyone until she dies.  No one in her family has ever dated (let alone planned to marry) a non-Greek person, but that changes after Toula meets Ian Miller.  At first the couple hide that they are even dating, as Toula is afraid of what her family will say.  Once they decide to get married they real fun began.  The blending of their two families is priceless.  The cultural differences are shocking to both families, which leads to many comical moments.  The Millers were definitely out of their element, when faced with Toula’s army of Greek relatives, and felt overwhelmed by their culture.  I like how the characters embraced the Greek culture, and eventually Toula’s father was won over too.  As Toula’s father said, “In the end, we all fruit.”

WORDS: 238

I Want to be a Gay Man!

I Want to be a Gay Man

When preparing for my wedding, my hair and makeup was done for me by a man; he was straight and married.  I remember being surprised he wasn’t gay.  Men who study the art of makeup, or hairstyling are some of the most talented persons in the trade, but does being skilled in these trades automatically make a man gay?  Why do people make this assumption?  As I am a big fan of makeup, I love watching Youtube tutorial videos.  There are several talented and creative men posting videos that teach a variety of makeup skills.  A lot of the men making makeup tutorials are opening gay, a lot are transsexual.   Is a man’s ability to use makeup based on their sexual orientation? No, but I do believe that being transsexual helps develop wicked application skills.  Have you ever noticed that some men are the most beautiful women?  Are their makeup skills responsible?  If being a gay man is what makes these men so skilled, in my next life I want to be a gay man.  How fun would it be to change your look with makeup and wigs on a regular basis?  Forget shopping for clothes!  I would spend a fortune on wigs!

Words: 210

Here be found my blog, Matey!

I  am in school studying Medical Office Administration, part of  the required carriculum is a class called Transcultural Communications.  Students in TransComm have been assigned the task of beginning a blog, then composing five entries that discuss transcultural topics.  Entries can deal with my family background and relationships, travel and/or workplace experiences, local observations, movies, books, and articles.   We were given a list of transcultural books to use as possible topic ideas, but I see no books about pirates, princesses, dragons, or knights.  Too bad!  I will have to decide what topic to write on first, but for tonight, I am grabbing my kids and focusing on PIRATES!!