Bob CollinsWhat does marriage look like?
News organizations had to answer that question this week when deciding what imagery to use to portray same-sex marriage.
Time magazine settled on kissing…
And, coincidentally, so did we.
Twice.
Legitimate choices, sure, but what does marriage really look like?
I tend to think this looks like marriage, taken at this year’s at a news conference urging legalization of same-sex marriage (AP photo).
Some years ago, when my parents visited Minnesota together for the last time, I walked into the living room one morning to see my dad in the rocking chair, and my mother on her knees tying his shoes. By then, he was too incapacitated to do even that. They didn’t see me and as he tried to help her to her feet, I snapped the picture in my mind by noting that it was an appropriate picture of marriage. A few months later, he was gone.
Of course, there aren’t a lot of images out there of elderly people saying goodbye to each other in a hospital room, after one has been left incapacitated by a stroke. But in many ways, this week’s Supreme Court was as much about tying someone else’s shoes as it was kissing.
What’s your picture of marriage look like?
