Yes. I confess to you, gentle readers.
I read the New York Times marriage announcements.
Not all of the announcements -- and not in general the conventional ones. It's very sweet that 25 year old Mary in human resources is wedding 27 year old Tony, who has a steady income as an architect -- but is it all that fascinating to anyone outside their immediate family?
The people who can't stand one another when they first meet. The woman who gets pregnant before she gets engaged. The college honeys have separate lives for 50 years and then meet again. Middle aged couples my age, and, of course the famous or close to famous.
Those are the profiles that lure me. And it seems to me that more and more couples are choosing to be married by nondenominational ministers. They may or may not fall into the "spiritual but not religious" arena -- but they surely don't represent traditional Abrahamic faiths.
So what's going on? Is it just the Times being trendy? Or is some researcher digging beneath the statistics as we read?
But you always have the Times factor. Who knows what quirky standard the editors use to chose the people who get honored?
I have a feeling that there's something big going on in American religious life when it comes to weddings. But I wonder if asking couples outside New York might give us a better picture.
Have you been reading, too? What's happening in your city?
1 commentaire:
Great question! (I have no great answer.) But I can understand why you would enjoy hearing the more compelling tales of how two people find each other, and I have always wondered what the criteria are for the Times.
As for clergy, I'm only hazarding a guess. But it seems to me that beyond the Big Apple and immediate area, I would think traditional ceremonies are still more like to be the norm in our country. Perhaps, however, the economy is having some impact, as scheduling traditional venues may be more price-prohibitive than it was even a few years back. Just a thought.
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