On the Progress of Marriage

Intersecting two lines on a map, we locate ourselves. Knotting equal strings forms a strong cord. Authentic response shows us who we are.

We pair up, usually, and not just to share the workload or to produce offspring. We search for a mate--most likely in a state of denial--until someone happens along who challenges us sufficiently, who can make us laugh, who is willing to tell us we have spinach in our teeth, who can impress us now and again with, for example, a stirring, in-depth knowledge of classical music, or by their daring to discuss world politics in a mixed crowd, or who can conceive of and then build beautiful jazz-shaped furniture.

Perhaps they have long legs. Perhaps you can beat them at chess and they don't care. If you are lucky, they can also fix the plumbing and dance and therefore be real courtship material.

This winning individual might first have appeared dressed only in baggy shorts and a small hat and enormous clodhopper shoes and be greeting your companion somewhat like a sand hill crane in full courtship mode until, possibly, your eyes met and a strange undeniable echoing seemed to resonate out from the future into the bright afternoon air.

It can be so simple, the beginning of it.

Quickly then, amidst the first fragrant sweeps of romance there enters a distinct feeling of danger. There are few prospects more disquieting than the spectre of marriage as it begins to loom and portend itself over a relationship that is proving itself to be perfectly fine as it is.

Why change everything, we might ask ourselves. Why yield to convention: Why introduce the incredible hullaballoo that surrounds the nuptual moment.

The formal and public and legal and festive aspects of matrimony---all properly daunting---pale beside the fact that we get no guarantee with this purchase.

Marriage, according to my experience, will not forestall salty arguments or serious weeping; it will not prevent the Irish partner, when thoroughly provoked, from throwing sandwiches, nor does it insure against regret and worry, or disappointment or grief or the working of time on the facial contours.

It has, in fact, no actual form outside of what we give it, and therein lies its freedoms.

With consummate effort, with a willingness to learn and then practice a few homely virtues, and with a measure of good fortune, our passionate pair might find themselves years later on a calm sunny morning, glancing out over coffee and newspapers, or over a crib and an astonishing baby, or over a beautiful flowerbed, and into a loved, familiar face and see it already smiling.

Glad. Admitting it. Just glad.

People in this frame of mind yearn for ice cream. If possible, allow finished Adult Ice Cream to cure for an hour in the freezer before indulging, but it can be mixed up in two minutes, churned immediately and licked off the dasher so quickly that impulse gratification is fully served, and that, too, is lovely stuff.

Beat together:

4 eggs

Gradually add to them:

2 C. sugar

Continue to beat until the mixture is thick. Add:

4 C. Cream

1 Tbsp. real vanilla extract

a pinch of salt

5-6 C. prepared strawberries, raspberries, peaches, bananas

You can switch flavorings with the fruit, for example, adding almond extract to peach, a dash of fresh nutmeg to bananas.

Churn according to the directions with your ice cream freezer.

Try it for breakfast with someone you love.