Twenty-five Years Wed
Steven Wittenberg Gordon
Said the husband:
How lucky I that I have you my
bride! We built a home and raised
children there together. Our son
is strong, and our daughter is beautiful.
Said the wife:
And yet I held you back even as I
held you to my heart and our children to my bosom. You could have been so much more--wealthy and powerful.
Said the husband:
You and our children are my wealth,
more valuable to me than gold; and as for power, the only kind I crave is the
power of our everlasting love.
Said the wife:
But I am beyond the bearing of
children now. My womb shall be
forever barren; my breasts devoid of milk; and my looks already begin to fade.
Said the husband:
Our son and daughter are all the
heirs I desire; to add to them would only take away. And as for your looks, you appear as the laurel, ever lithe
and green.
Said the wife:
Ha! Flatterer! My
hair is streaked with white and my face already begins to show the signs of
nearly fifty summers, lined with age and old.
Said the husband:
Not so! For your hair is as the laurel in winter kissed with snow,
and your countenance merely records your every smile--a delight to my heart.
Said the wife:
Then you would be content to live
another quarter century as my mate, despite the inevitable decline in strength
and stature we must face?
Said the husband:
I would be yours for half a
century and more and forever in spirit in the great beyond. For with you I have everything; without
you I have nothing.
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