Messaging

The year: 1970.

My old man 
He's a singer in the park 
He's a walker in the rain 
He's a dancer in the dark 
We don't need no piece of paper 
From the city hall 
Keeping us tied and true 
My old man 
Keeping away my blues

-- Joni Mitchell, "My Old Man"

Well there's a rose in the fisted glove
And the eagle flies with the dove
And if you can't be with the one you love honey
Love the one you're with, Love the one you're with,
Love the one you're with, Love the one you're with.

-- Stephen Stills, "Love the One You're With"

One year later, in 1971:

My friends from college they're all married now;
They have their houses and their lawns.
They have their silent noons,
Tearful nights, angry dawns.
Their children hate them for the things they're not;
They hate themselves for what they are-
And yet they drink, they laugh,
Close the wound, hide the scar.

But you say it's time we moved in together
And raised a family of our own, you and me -
Well, that's the way I've always heard it should be:
You want to marry me, we'll marry.

-- Carly Simon, "That's the Way I Always Heard It Should Be"

Contrast the messaging from 1966:

Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray it might come true
Baby then there wouldn't be a single thing we couldn't do
We could be married
And then we'd be happy

Wouldn't it be nice

-- Brian Wilson (The Beach Boys), "Wouldn't It Be Nice"

And a reminder from one of our greatest living moral philosophers:

I support every person's right to fall short of the expectations of an other, and that 'other's right to be feel let down and to nag accordingly.

Marriage ain't 'all that'.

Get 'that', and it's an easy conclusion...

No matter what happens as a result of the minuet that took place in Washington this week, we aren't getting 1966 back. Nor are we about to bestow it on anyone else.