The Merry, Adventuress, Boot Shaking Scary,
Vow
Watching the pairs of swallows swooping and spinning and arguing and trilling at each other, some romancing mates, some just checking out the furnishing of the birdhouses under the eaves was just a delight. It’s an amazing thing. Swallows mate for life, so do the returning geese and I thought there is some good in imitating nature but some discretion might be in order. Fruit bats are notoriously promiscuous and I wouldn’t suggest them as paragons of virtue to be imitated. But it was the pairing up for life that got me thinking about vows. And wondering. Is life more of an adventure with a vow or without one? A vow is thought to pen one in, cut out other options, restrict ones freedom and I suppose that’s true in many ways. Certainly cuts out options. If you decided to board an airplane for New York, it’s a little hard to get on the train at thirty thousand feet. Your committed.
Well after a little pondering it came to me on just how momentous a vow is, and yes life is much more of an adventure with it. G.K. Chesterton, that portly, prolific, and magnificent writer of the 20th century says this of a vow.
“The man who makes a vow makes an appointment with himself at some distant time or place. The danger of it is that himself should not keep the appointment.”
And isn’t that true, If I make a vow I am promising that in some future time I will be somewhere that I said I would be. To not show up means I didn’t keep the vow. Think about that. That is where the scary comes in. That’s where life gets really big. That is where real courage is going to be found, or found to be wanting. Take the soldier, a vow of a certain number of years is taken. To fight for his country. Come hell or high water. And both do come. Till death or victory. It’s a real possibility that he will meet himself in some great battle for his countries life and his own. Because he said he would, he shows up.
Marriage is like that too, as is really any vow. When the wife fights for her life in a difficult birth or the baby, it’s life, and you want to run because it’s to big to take it all in but you don’t, it’s the vow. When there’s no money and no prospect of any, you stay and make it happen. So isn’t he right The danger is that you won’t keep the appointment with yourself where your supposed to be. Life get’s real interesting really fast after a vow is taken. You have to show up in so many places and situations you never imagined you would have to. Some situations are so much more delightful on account of it, some are downright hard and frightening but all in all it’s a way more full and fulfilling life than having the option to bail out whenever one wishes.
It’s an amazing thing now how tarnished that little word is now. Poor thing. We don’t have any expectations that politicians will keep theirs. We expect them to lie to us and we take it. The poor little vow takes a beating now in marriage where even there it struggles to be taken seriously. Really seriously. Till death do us part serious. Maybe it’s because we don’t trust ourselves anymore. We don’t have the trust in ourselves that we will really follow through and show up somewhere in the future where we said we would. Is it because we think we are so weak we will fall to any temptation that would take us from our commitments to that vow. So is Chesterton right when he says?
“And in modern times this terror of one’s self, of the weakness and mutability of one’s self, has perilously increased, and is the real basis of the objection to vows of any kind."
Man have we really become so weak. Well, not I say’s me (with a bit of trembling in the knees) we’re going to have to take some polish to that little word and make it shine. Make it attractive. That’s where adventure is. That’s where the dangers are. That’s living on the edge. That’s taking a man at his word. For me it was marriage,
And so when I am a grandfather I had better find myself at grandmas’ side and say, 'Move over myself, I have arrived here as I said I would.'
Well after a little pondering it came to me on just how momentous a vow is, and yes life is much more of an adventure with it. G.K. Chesterton, that portly, prolific, and magnificent writer of the 20th century says this of a vow.
“The man who makes a vow makes an appointment with himself at some distant time or place. The danger of it is that himself should not keep the appointment.”
And isn’t that true, If I make a vow I am promising that in some future time I will be somewhere that I said I would be. To not show up means I didn’t keep the vow. Think about that. That is where the scary comes in. That’s where life gets really big. That is where real courage is going to be found, or found to be wanting. Take the soldier, a vow of a certain number of years is taken. To fight for his country. Come hell or high water. And both do come. Till death or victory. It’s a real possibility that he will meet himself in some great battle for his countries life and his own. Because he said he would, he shows up.
Marriage is like that too, as is really any vow. When the wife fights for her life in a difficult birth or the baby, it’s life, and you want to run because it’s to big to take it all in but you don’t, it’s the vow. When there’s no money and no prospect of any, you stay and make it happen. So isn’t he right The danger is that you won’t keep the appointment with yourself where your supposed to be. Life get’s real interesting really fast after a vow is taken. You have to show up in so many places and situations you never imagined you would have to. Some situations are so much more delightful on account of it, some are downright hard and frightening but all in all it’s a way more full and fulfilling life than having the option to bail out whenever one wishes.
It’s an amazing thing now how tarnished that little word is now. Poor thing. We don’t have any expectations that politicians will keep theirs. We expect them to lie to us and we take it. The poor little vow takes a beating now in marriage where even there it struggles to be taken seriously. Really seriously. Till death do us part serious. Maybe it’s because we don’t trust ourselves anymore. We don’t have the trust in ourselves that we will really follow through and show up somewhere in the future where we said we would. Is it because we think we are so weak we will fall to any temptation that would take us from our commitments to that vow. So is Chesterton right when he says?
“And in modern times this terror of one’s self, of the weakness and mutability of one’s self, has perilously increased, and is the real basis of the objection to vows of any kind."
Man have we really become so weak. Well, not I say’s me (with a bit of trembling in the knees) we’re going to have to take some polish to that little word and make it shine. Make it attractive. That’s where adventure is. That’s where the dangers are. That’s living on the edge. That’s taking a man at his word. For me it was marriage,
“It is the nature of love to bind itself, and the institution of marriage merely paid the average man the compliment of taking him at his word.” G.K. Chesterton
And so when I am a grandfather I had better find myself at grandmas’ side and say, 'Move over myself, I have arrived here as I said I would.'
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