All my Friends are Getting Married

Somebody sang this song to me today just because I told him that two of our common friends are getting married, to each other.

I’ve never heard this song before, but I Googled it, and found it’s from an album released in 1970! I wasn’t even born then yet. I’m quoting a portion of the song here:

All My Friends Are Getting Married
(Greg Macainsh) / Skyhooks

Well all my friends are getting married
Yes they're all growin' old
They're staying home on weekends
They're all doin' what they're told
But I'm caught up in this magic
I'm all caught up in the fun
I'm all caught up in this music
Maybe I'll never have a son

x x x

Well sometimes I feel like I'm left behind
And sometimes I feel like I just left school
Wonder if I'll ever grow up
Maybe I'm the only fool

But I'm all caught up in this magic
Yes I'm caught up in this fun
I'm all caught up with this music
Well maybe I'll never have a son

Well my dear friend, we can at least enjoy the music! I wanted to tell you that the only thing worse than a single person’s loneliness is… someone else’s marital misery. But I wasn't sure if you would agree with me.

As I was putting on anti-aging products on my face tonight, I thought of my singularly lonely friends and my maritally miserable ones. I also though about those who seemed to have everything right - marriage, work, children, all of life perfectly figured out. And a quiet voice reminded me that all of us, without exception, would be worse than just lonely or miserable, but would be downright hopeless, if we didn't have an awareness of the love of God for each and every one of us, and if we didn't live our lives towards coming up with our own best response to that love.

Married is not necessarily better than single, and vice versa. I asked one of the greatest living people I know what following God was really about, in his opinion, and he said that everyone else would often say that it's about getting what we want when we want it everytime, but for him it's about taking up our cross and following our Lord Jesus. If we want to be serious about our relationship with God, we have to stop this whining and complaining, and start getting our acts together. So we might feel left behind sometimes, but that's just temporary. The only thing eternal is the love of God, whoever we are, whatever our status or situation in life is.

I left that conversation feeling how simple the solution to my boredom and restlessness really is, but I have to be reminded of the truth point blank or else I'd keep going around in circles, repeating past mistakes, pursuing dead ends, trying several U-turns, and not understanding why I could never seem to get anything right.

Maybe instead of singing or writing about my problems, I should do something about them and actually face the people who are in authority to correct the seemingly erroneous situations that make my life difficult these days.

I have discovered how averse to conflict and confrontation I really am. That's why like a lot of Pinoys my age, I enjoy the ease, comfort and detachment of blogging and texting. But my conscience has spoken, and I have to heed his voice otherwise it was a mighty waste of his precious time.

Where did this blog lead to? I was only planning to write about the song about all my friends getting married. This conscience, really, is hard to ignore.