50 years...

How does it feel to be married to the same person for 50 years? Does the "and they live happily ever after" work that long? Today we share this celebration of 50 years of the Khors journey together, their Golden Wedding Anniversary. They are known as Uncle Pete and Aunty Ruth to many. Ruth was the one who named our daughter. So, I always have a soft spot for her. She chose a good name for our gal. And so when I look at my girl, I'll always remember her.

I think to stay married today is a difficult thing. Divorce rates are on the rise. Marriage is an institution considered by some as archaic today. Many live together without getting married (even though studies show that actually married couples tend to stay together longer compared to those who live together without any strings attached).

Marriage is not a bed of roses, that's for sure... plenty of onak and duri tales. To fall in love, I think, is easy. To remain in love is the hard part. Boy meets girl (or vice versa). Boy falls for girl... dates and proposals. Those are the heady days. Then reality sinks. Living together brings quirkinesses together. You think you've got it all figured out, but reality is you've got to be flexible to learn and adapt as you go along. Norms and culture set roles for the man and woman. But lines become blurred with changing times and expectations, some for the better but very often too for the worse. Hence we have the institution of marriage in trouble today.

Love is actually no just a feeling... it involves more than that...

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 sums it up very well...

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

Living up to these verses is no easy feat. But to see Pak Khor and Mak Khor celebrate their 50 years together gladdens me. Mak Khor shared in church a couple of months ago about their relationship and it's nice to hear that they are still there for each other, for better and for worse. And is the "they live happily ever after" true? Apparently so according to Mak Khor, in her sharing tonight. It was a good sharing.... one spoke in Mandarin while the other translated, in between they got mixed up... the languages, LOL! The sharing was humourous but contained many snippets of wise words and advice. This is one dinner which I truly enjoyed attending....

Pete & Ruth from amech7 on Vimeo.

And this is little presentation that I did for them. The sound got lost when I uploaded it to the Net. Been having problem rendering it with the sound but somehow, yesterday night, when I converted it into the DVD format, just for once, the DVD copy worked. After that, I just couldn't get it to comply again. Divine providence??? I don't know. Technology is supposed to be straightforward.... but maybe... God bless them both!