I vowed to no longer accept and attend wedding invitations, because so many I supported with my presence were later lawfully dissolved. However, I reneged on that solemn pledged commitment by attending a good friend's son's most recent civil social union.

The wedding contract is a bond of universal enduring culture. The audience's presence ensures that the knot is tied in a mighty public way. The joint agreement implies that to one person, you may be the world. The couple exited bachelorhood and entered into the basic and primal instinct of matrimony, taking on the garment of respectability.

The couple wooed and went from courtship without haste to marriage in due time. Proof that marriage is never out of fashion in spite of those that are not the marrying brand which is unpleasing to a married ear.

I, personally, was late to enter the civil contract due to an irretrievable loss and failure of my ill-adventured youth. My floundering and foundering in early days due to habits and a misunderstanding of the responsibilities that attend with love, delayed me much. It was long for me to realize that it takes more than a box of chocolates, "I love you" cards, amorous letters and many talks with the same lady to possess her kind attention and prompt her to get the wedding dress ready for me.

Smitten many times over and lonely with singleness, I once asked my mother: "Just what is it? What does a girl want?" Her soft reply was "stability and security." That, indeed, translated to me meant money by way of permanent work. Enduring work I never gained until arriving in South Korea in 2002 at the age of 55. It was one lady's task to prove to me that my intentions were serious, and she did.

Thus, attending my friend's son's bright wedding day inspired awe and reverence and brought tears to my eyes when I thought of how many joys that small circle of a wedding ring brings to couples.

So, seeing the couple's thoughts wedded by speech with the exchange of "I do," I was glad for my friend's son and his betrothed.

Now, as the special gathering did go with affection suitable to it, we all engaged in cheerful, good humor. Although I'm not a comedian, I proposed a rhyming toast to my friend's son: Have you not heard that "When you were single, your pockets would jingle. Now that you are yoked, you shall always be broke!"

I mention that one British writer of long ago quipped, "It doesn't much signify whom one marries, for one is sure to find next morning that it was someone else."

I do believe that I personally did not experience and find this out until a decade later, however, I wonder if I am the only most married man that I ever saw in my life?

The author (wrjones@vsu.edu) published the novella “Beyond Harvard” and teaches English as a second language.