Swinging, Window Seats, and Growing Old

As part of her Mother’s Day today, the family took Mrs. Gentlenibbles to the theatre to watch “The Wedding Singer” the musical.  Our family really enjoys going to the theatre and “The Wedding Singer” the movie, is one of our favorite movies.  As I was watching the fantastic performance I found myself performing a little bit of introspection.

“The Wedding Singer” the movie and the musical is full of romantic ideology that many pessimists in the world today believe is unrealistic, and if it does exist, it is short lived in the passionate phase of the relationship.  There are several scenarios in the movie which are used to illustrate to the audience the presence of true love between the hero and heroine,and the flaws of the love that exists between the heroine and the anti-hero.

In one scene the fiance (the anti-hero) would not let the heroine have the window seat on her first plane ride because the drink cart always bangs into him when it passes by.  The tragedy being his self sightedness in not only withholding the opportunity for the heroine to enjoy the experience of the window seat on her first flight, but the fact it was now the elbows of his “love” that he was subjecting to the drink cart’s demise.

In another scene the heroine speaks of true love as being able to picture growing old with someone.  Unfortunately, she goes on to describe this description with her fiance (the anti-hero) by only being able to come up with, “He will look good when he is old”.  Of course the author intends for us as the audience to recognize the shallowness of the relationship between the heroine and the anti-hero.

In the end, the movie and musical reaches it’s climax by the hero confessing his love to the heroine and asking her to marry him.  He does this in a song whose lyrics are as follows:

I wanna make you smile whenever you’re sad
Carry you around when your arthritis is bad
All I wanna do is grow old with you

I’ll get your medicine when your tummy aches
Build you a fire if the furnace breaks
Oh it could be so nice, growing old with you

I’ll miss you
Kiss you
Give you my coat when you are cold

Need you
Feed you
Even let ya hold the remote control

So let me do the dishes in our kitchen sink
Put you to bed if you’ve had too much to drink
I could be the man who grows old with you
I wanna grow old with you

As members of the lifestyle, many people assume that there is some type of flaw or problem with one’s marriage and that on some level you are trying to fill some void in your marriage.  And while I have no doubts that Read more