Marriage In Fayettenam

Apparently I don't have to ask anybody if they heard about Tiger Woods' supposed "transgressions" over the past few days. And I figure that most of the educated American public would figure out exactly what kind of "transgressions" he committed.

I'm not going to dwell on all of the media spin, but Tiger cheated on that hot wife of his. That is the bottom line. P**** Galore (Jason Whitlock's term, not mine) is an undefeated opponent that many athletes, soldiers, etc... just could not defeat no matter what. It remains to be seen whether his marriage will survive.

Speaking of marriage...

I've wanted to talk about my views on marriage for a while now. I haven't even been close to walking the aisle with ANYONE at this point; at one point I felt marriage wasn't an unfavorable path because I felt I could not make the commitment. But after watching my mom and dad divorce twice apiece, I believe I've seen enough to gain a grasp on what I want my marriage to be. To be blunt, I believe that marriage is a lifelong commitment between two people who love each other. It should never be broken. Point blank.

And I also believe that infidelity is the ONLY thing that cause a divorce. I never became a Jehovah's Witness, but that's their credo on divorce, and I think it works. In my view, there are two main enemies to marriage; divorce, and marrying for greed, or mockery, as I call it.

However, it should be known (oh, I'm sorry, I told you already) that I live in Fayetteville, North Carolina. As you should know, Fayetteville is home to the largest military base in America. It is also home to an (estimated) eighty percent divorce rate.

I realize that divorce is common in America. Why are we lamenting a 50 percent divorce rate? But since I graduated from Methodist, I have heard all of the horror stories-online and in person-of young couples, almost all of them with military ties, marrying in their early 20's (which I think from life experience is too young) only to finalize their divorce only a couple of years later. I knew two girls who went to MU with me-both athletes, that's all I'll say-who married soldiers before the start of their season only to divorce them the next year. Don't know the reason why, but...

People should know that a soldier in any branch gets quite the financial reward for walking the aisle. Their paycheck goes up, and in the case of lower ranking soldiers, they get to escape the barracks and live off base. In the case of the female, she gets the benefits from being a military spouse. Fair for both parties, eh?

But I've also seen and heard the tales of women who come from all over the globe with the objective of marrying a soldier for the financial benefits and little else. I've heard one story from a dude I met three months ago about one of this man's friends dating a stripper who was still technically married to a soldier for financial reasons. I was also kind of talking to a girl who had just divorced a soldier, but needless to say I decided to leave her alone after I realized that she was pretty content to sit on alimony. To her credit, she was looking for a job.

Then you have these wives that decide to cheat on their deployed husbands because they are lonely and such. We know how that goes.

I think that the behavior I've heard about in Fayetteville is a great enemy to marriage, and to be honest, I think that this financial incentive for soldiers to marry should be seriously looked at, if not abolished. It has been abused too many times, on both sides, for my liking.

Dude, marry the girl only if you are SURE that you want to be with her for the rest of your life. Don't marry for money and/or benefits. One reason why I can't wait to get out of this bizzaroland.