Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Interesting tid bit

I am reading a book called "The Mystery of Marriage" by Mike Mason. So far I am most intrigued by his style of writing and gift for creating interesting images and connections with marriage, spouses and our relationship with God. Here are a few quotes to intrigue you -
It is a refreshing perspective with wonderful description and detail. Please Enjoy:

"A marriage, or a marriage partner, may be compared to a great tree growing right up through the center of one's living room. It is something that is just there, and it is huge, and everything has been built around it, and wherever one happens to be going-- to the fridge, to bed, to the bathroom, or out the front door--the tree has to be taken into account. It cannot be gone through; it must respectively be gone around. It is something bigger and stronger than oneself. True, it could be chopped down, but not without tearing the house apart. And certainly it is beautiful, unique, exotic: but also, let's face it, it is at times an enormous inconvenience."

"There is an important difference, however, between those who hang on and those who run away, between the marriages that last and are good, and the ones that either break up or else drag on in a state of unresolved tension and neurosis. Both must endure ruin, but the difference lies in the place in which this ruin is experienced. For in those who run away from the intense fire of marriage, the ruin happens in the place in them that is love, and in this place, this glorios and mysterious and delicate capacity in them, really does receive a terrible wound, sometimes enought to impair it for life. But in the case of those who hang on to love and who see it through to its mortal finish, the ruin that occurs, the internal debacle, is not in the place of love (although it may often seem to be happening there), but rather in the place, in the palace, of the ego. And that makes all the difference in the world. It is one thing to wreck the ego. But it is quite another, and indeed the very opposite, to make shipwreck of the soul."

"But how hard it is to give everything! Indeed, it is impossible. One can make a symbolic gesture of giving all, accompanied by a grand dramatic public statement to that effect (which is what happens at the wedding ceremony). But that is just a start. The wedding is merely the beginning of a lifelong process of handing over absolutely everything, and not simply everything that one owns but everything that one is."

Let me tell you, I am normally a fast reader but this book has slowed me down something terrible! Every paragraph I have to stop and consider, stop and think for several minutes about what he is saying and then whether or not I agree and then how it applies to myself and my marriage. I'm sure I will be posting more on my journey through this book. But, I fear it will be a slow journey.

-L