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I Won’t Abide by Prescriptive Validation
Simply, no one gets to determine what criteria validates me or not.
Last week, I found myself having a conversation about marriage. I used to hate even talking about it, but I’ve let that go. My status in life and what I’ve been through means I have a lot of thoughts on a lot of matters, matrimony being one of them.
Often, I am asked whether or not I ever want to get married again. First, I have walked down this question’s road so many times that I could serve as a solid tour guide for anyone newly finding themselves in this space. Second, I can’t think of a more loaded question. It took me years to figure out how I felt about the question, let alone what my answer would be.
I hold certain truths that directly apply to the answering of this question. The first is that I do not believe in life-limiting statements. What this means is that words like “never” do not belong in my vocabulary. If it’s legal and does no harm to myself or my loved ones, it’s on my life table.
As a general practice, I think that we should fill our life tables with as many things as the space will allow. This, to me, is living a rich, full-hearted life.
I have plenty of friends who swear they are never getting married again. While I fully support whatever…
