I took a great year long course in high school called The History of Western Philosophy. We started with Anaximander and ended with Kant. The idea was to understand not to agree. Yes, the professor had his own point of view – after all it was a small boarding school so everyone knew everyone else – but he was not set on indoctrinating his students. It was a hard but fun class. The influence of philosophy and logic has extended far beyond that class.
The professor, who passed recently, made a point that there are 3 important events in life. Over the decades since then I have thought a lot about his opinion. I think he is right and far beyond the immediate thoughts about those events. The three events that are most important are birth, death, and marriage. For me the marriage issue is not predicated on a ceremony. It is predicated on the joining of two lives to act in unison. Yes, those two people will have differences but the intent is to be as one. Think of your own mind. There are times when you are torn over a decision; your own brain is not united in what to do. Socrates even talks about this and he follows the voice that tells him what he should not do. (See The Apology)
“You have often heard me speak of an oracle or sign which comes to me, and is the divinity which Meletus ridicules in the indictment. This sign I have had ever since I was a child. The sign is a voice which comes to me and always forbids me to do something which I am going to do, but never commands me to do anything, and this is what stands in the way of my being a politician.” — Socrates, Plato’s Apology
In a way “marriage” is a type of birth. It is the birth of the joining of two into one. I extended the birth and death events to not only ones birth and death but to the people you are connected to. A mother giving birth to an infant is a very important event not just for the child but for the mother and father also. Concomitantly, the same for death; the antithesis of birth.
Chance Musings 