Today, ABC News published a heartwarming story about dying children and their last wishes. Wishes included feeding the homeless, riding a boat and ... getting married.
One 9-year-old girl, who was diagnosed with leukemia and is only expected to live a few more weeks, wanted to have a wedding while she could. The photos are cute and according to the bride, so is her groom, a 7-year-old who also has leukemia.
Dying wishes are nothing to joke about and can actually provide very keen insight into America's youth. I have to wonder about a culture that obviously glorifies the act of getting married to the extent that a 9-year-old, with a lot on her mind, needs to experience it before she dies.
This is nothing against the child who wished for a wedding, but a critique of a society that makes young girls think they have be married to have a full life. While the number of people getting married peaked in the 1940s and '50s, it has been steadily declining in recent years. Reasons as to why, you can speculate on your own.
Now, I am not anti-love, in fact I am very pro-love and would have given this girl a wedding if she were my own child. I am simply weary of our way of making love so institutionalized. How can dreams of a wedding come before dreams of finding someone to love? And when you find that person, do you really a need a ring and a gown to prove it?
Now Jennifer Aniston and other characters of He's Just Not That Into You and Bride Wars will likely disagree, but I think 9-year-olds should be dreaming about trips to the moon and riding elephants.
-mar
