The 50th wedding anniversary

The pianist and I are going to a 50th anniversary of long time friends this weekend. Most of the people we are going with are also 50th anniversary veterans.We have been to about six celebrations in the last five years including our own. Practically all our friends are enjoying or enduring codgerhood or cronehood together. What is this? Is it a generational thing? We all ,I think, promised to live together for better or for worse, for richer or poorer and in sickness and in health. Certainly, all those issues intervened from time to time, or enduringly so. The television these days rarely programs for the old, but incessantly advertises alarm systems,funny bathtubs with doors, Chips mortgages to take your house off your hands, chairs on rails on stairs, and funeral insurance. We need our children to protect us from those that would help us. Our children were key figures in the celebrations we attended, including our own. If it weren't for them,ours would have been a spartan affair. The blessing of children and grandchildren separates the gathering from anything else that one could experience. As my son Robert pointed out this has more to say about the congregation of a family and the relationships that are fostered, than about longevity of the union. It was always called a celebration, as it is undoubtedly, but it really is for the pianist and me to celebrate those who have been part of us and the institution that has been created because of that union. I wonder if fifty years from now, will people still be doing this or will the institution of this kind of union, that forces the growth,fun,companionship, resilience,forgiveness,persistance and love of every sort, still last? I hope so!