Profunksticated

Hello, dear readers of Profunksticated’s blog:

It is about 3 a.m. as I write this. We’re a few hours removed from my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary banquet in the Philly-South NJ. Wonderful it was. About 100 of my folks’ siblings, relatives and other friends showed up to help celebrate. The festivities were in a banquet room of a municipal country club/golf course.

The folks arrived in a stretch limo. We did dinner, played a trivia game about my parents’ lives, and acted like paparazzi, shooting a gazillion digital photos. We also feted Mom and Dad with songs, warm remarks, and visual memories of the past (including the video I assembled.)

My Dad admitted he was out there, living the single life and partying when he met Mom. What attracted him to her? Her suggestion that they attend church as their first date. He thanked her for “putting up with me for 50 years.” Mom said her husband, among other things, was a hard-working provider.

Look, you all already know that marriage ain’t always a bowl of cherries, but in this age of the ubiquitous stat of half of all American marriages breaking up, it’s nice — heck, it’s extraordinary — to see a couple stick out life’s peaks, valleys, brickbats and bouquets for half a century.

That’s 50 years, ya’ll. 600 months. 2,600 weeks. 18,262.5 days. 438,300 hours.

I remarked to the audience that God blessed me with the right set of parents. They provided a great example. They weren’t at fault for the times I went astray, I chose to travel those paths. In the final analysis, they did what they could to keep myself and my younger brother and sister on the right roads. After that, it was simply up to us.

As I’ve blogged before, my family has been through a lot of stuff in 2008, most of it downright unpleasant. For example, today December 7, would have been my brother and late sister-in-law’s 23rd wedding anniversary. I’m sure a lot of folks present remembered that. And if you’ve read this blog for any amount of time you know there’s other stuff happening, but I’m not going into any more detail, at least not in this post.

It was nice to have such a beautiful event cap a not-so-great 2008. Yeah, I’m sounding sappy, but I don’t care right about now. I thank God for my parents and their marriage.