Marriage Around the World

Oprah explored what marriage is like in other countries on one of her shows.  Some of her findings were very interesting.  Oprah found that in India 95% of the marriages are arranged.  Also, more than half of all marriages in the world are arranged marriages.  I can't even fathom the idea of being told who to marry. However, I may change my mind many years from now when my daughter starts contemplating marriage. I'm sure it cuts down on a lot of parental stress.  Maybe over half the world is on to something.

In Cairo Egypt one in every three marriages ends in divorce, and it is a major taboo to live together without being married. In Egypt a man can just say he wants a divorce three times out loud and it's a done deal. Women in Egypt have to go through a trial.  In Denmark, women are raised to be independent and there is a feeling of equality between men and women.  According to Nanna from Denmark, you never get married before you've lived together for awhile and sometimes couples never get married.   Author Elizabeth Gilbert's new book Committed explores marriage.  Elizabeth says, "The only thing that's consistent about the history of marriage is change and evolution."  According to Elizabeth, she is now seeing what she's termed as a wifeless marriage.  It is when women want to get married, but not be the traditional wife who stays home and sacrifices everything.

I celebrated my 20 year wedding anniversary this summer.  I started dating my husband when I was sixteen and got married seven years later.  I am by no means an expert on marriage, but I do feel it's something you have to work at.  I'm definitely not the same person I was at 16.  People grow and evolve just as your marriage does and hopefully you still like/love each other over time.  At the risk of sounding hokey, I'll share something the priest we met with prior to getting married said.  He asked us to think about what qualities we would use to describe Jesus and then how we would describe our spouse.  It just so happened they matched each other.  That's not to say that over the course of 20 plus years a few of Satan's haven't popped up as well for both of us.