Saturday, December 22, 2007

Man and Wife, and Christmas Ornaments


“…and the two shall become as one.” -Genesis 2:24

When Arthur and I were married, we chose a reading from Genesis chapter two, not so much for the two-becoming-as-one part, but for the preceding sentence:

“A man shall leave his father and his mother.”

Our selection was a tiny bit tongue-in-cheek reference to the fact that Arthur was moving 1100 miles away from his parents. However, the becoming as one part isn’t so much about the being in close proximity, but that our entire lives become increasingly entwined.

Things are blending together more and more. Perhaps the best example of this is our personal sets of Christmas decorations. Or, should I say our “former” personal sets? After the first year they became all mixed in together. I mentioned briefly in my confessions post that there is something very intimate about mixing ornaments. Our ornaments represent so many facets of our lives, but at the same time the memories represented are often hazy at best.

Some of the ornaments are unmistakably mine, such as the little primitive ones, hand made out of spools. My grandmother and I put them together when I was four years old. Likewise, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the Hallmark collectable Elvis decoration belonged to Sue.

But this being our 4th Christmas together, some things are starting to blur into a sparkly green-and-red haze. The generic ornaments, the cute grinning snowmen, the little fuzzy-bearded Santas are all starting to look the same. Because of this, we have had the following conversation more than once:

“That’s a cute ornament! Where did you get it?”

(Blank look.)

“I thought it was yours!”



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