“Our culture is lamentably willing to celebrate infidelity.”

Kathryn Jean Lopez wrote a great piece this morning about that quaint, old-fashioned notion of actually remaining faithful to your spouse, and how vigorously our culture is eroding it.

I remember some feature or another (TV, magazine, can’t remember) several years ago about greeting cards designed for one adulterer to send another.  They were really precious; the usual banal poetry, but with an undercurrent of “I’ll be thinking of you while I’m with her this Christmas” and what-not.  I think I had the same reaction to it that I did to the credit card company pitching specifically to illegal immigrants:  it’s sad, but that market’s there, so go.

I’ve never been anything but a fierce monogamist, but even so, once upon a time it was easier for me to engage that cynicism when thinking about it.  I’ve tacked steadily away from it the longer I’ve been married, and it received a violent and sustained thrust as I watched a close friend systematically destroy his family this year.

Married folks, please:  be “rebels,” and actually do what you said you’d do.  (Believe it or not, that really is enough reason, all by itself, to remain faithful to him/her.)

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5 thoughts on ““Our culture is lamentably willing to celebrate infidelity.””

  1. It seems that people who grow up in our “culture” no longer are willing to put forth effort to work at anything. Fatalistic? Perhaps, but it’s what I am seeing more and more of in the workforce, so why not everywhere else?

    Reply
  2. When society lost the sense of shame — and in fact, made it worse to be the “shame-er” v. the “shame-ee” — we lost the battle. In fact, one might say we lost the war.

    It’s no longer about right v. wrong. It’s about making sure everyone feeeeeels good and gets to do what they waaaaaant. Screw everyone else.

    Reply
  3. saintseester: It’s everybody else’s fault, too!

    kemtee: Loss of shame is succinct, and feels devastatingly accurate to me. I’m going to think about that.

    “Screw everyone else,” indeed. Literally.

    Reply
  4. As a society, we’ve made it incredibly easy to get out of marriage. The members of the entertainment industry change spouses like they change underwear. It’s really sad to see that the institution of marriage is no longer taken seriously.

    Hubby and I are still ‘rebelling’ after 20 years. 🙂

    Reply

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