The ritual of getting married, the process you undertake, and the path society expects you to walk, is laden with tradition and symbolism. Most meaningful and significant moments in humans’ lives are. It’s hard to imagine a birthday party without gifts and a cake, or a sitting of parliament without the pomp and ceremony. Part of being in a community with other humans is that common unity, that essence of all of us understanding that to do this you’ve got to do that.
So I understand wedding traditions, and symbolism. It’s not bad, nor evil. It helps all of us in the community to know what is happening. But I’m also going to be the first guy to stand up and say that I think there’s a better way and today’s that day. In the hopes of not offending everyone straight up I’m going to start small, on the wedding rings.
“What’s the problem with wedding rings” they all scream as they pick up their pitchforks. There’s no real problem with the idea of a ring, and even when it comes to style, diamonds, metals, expense, none of that really bothers me. If you want to drop a house deposit on a finger, be my guest, it’s your money.
I just have a problem with the name.
A wedding ring, in name, sounds like a souvenir from a wedding. Something you receive and wear to remind you of your wedding, and if that’s all a wedding ring is for I think it’s a mighty waste of 10% of your fingers, and a greater waste of a house deposit.
Why? Because your marriage should be greater than your wedding. If the greatest thing to happen to your marriage was a wedding I’d tell you you’re missing out.
The greatest part of any journey isn’t checking in at the airport, or filling the car up at the servo before a road trip. The best part is the adventure that takes place. That’s your marriage. And something as good as a marriage deserves a symbol on one of those fingers.
My proposal is this: we should call them marriage rings.
They can mean whatever you want them to mean, but if you’re stuck for a thought, I’d suggest that they mean that because of the commitment you’ve made in your marriage, everything is awesome, this too will pass, and the best is yet to come.
