How'd they do that?

Monday was my parent's 52nd wedding anniversary. You read that right, 52 years of continuously living in matrimonial harmony. I told one of my kidlette's friends and she replied "How'd they do that?" Some of kidlette's friends are amazed the John and I have been married almost 15 years. So many teenagers today either have parents who were never married, or only married a short time. One of her friends has met a couple members of his extended family, but doesn't really know any of his relatives, his parents are divorced and both living with "significant others". My own kids, out of 6, 3 are married, but two of them are separated, the other was separated for several months before reuniting recently. The other 3 have a total of 5 kids, but have never been married, one of them changing relationships so frequently, I never know what the current beau's name is. I remember back to when my first baby was born. Now, admittedly, I was young, about 18 1/2, but there was another young mom in my room. She had a beautiful baby boy whom she named Danroyal. I was very intrigued by that name, so I asked her how she came up with it. Her answer is the main reason I remember the incident still. She said, "I wanted to name him after his daddy, but I don't know if it's Dan, Roy, or Al." I think about that baby, who is now a man of 32, and wonder how he grew up and what his values are, how he takes care of any children he may have. Now, I am not some Christian spouting fundamental beliefs. I just think that having a child is a life long commitment. I find it hard to believe that some people find it so easy to make the lifetime commitment of parenthood with someone they don't want to make a commitment of legally binding marriage with. If you don't care enough about a person to want to spend your life with them, why do you want to create the most precious gift of life with that person as the other half of your child's DNA? I know one young woman who met a guy at a dance club, decided he had cute eyes and that she wanted a baby by him because of those eyes. Within two weeks she was sleeping with him and did indeed get pregnant. Okay, I'm done. I don't know how to wrap this up. I've written and deleted about 5 different conclusions, and none of them were right. I'll just drop this rant off in mid-air. If anyone is out there, I'd love to hear your comments.

Happy New Year!

What is it about this one day in particular that made our society decide THIS is the moment a new year starts? It could have been June 13th or October 9th and everything would be the same. Some people consider the start of the new year to be whenever school starts in their area. Others consider their birthday or some other anniversary to be the beginning of the year. I learned a little while ago that I could start over any time I wanted or needed to. Start a project and not keep up with my predetermined schedule? I can start over, maybe rework my self-imposed deadlines to be more realistic, and find success! Decide that I'm going to start behaving a certain way (quit smoking, start a diet, begin exercising)? I can begin any time I need to. So I'd like to suggest freedom from the tyranny of the calendar for all. Start any self-improvement situation over when ever you need. Start over any time you need. Take the pressure off yourself, forget New Year's Resolutions. Be Free.