RE: Remember The Good Old Days? I Want Them Back. Come Take A Trip Down Memory Lane.
Haha, oh, man, there are some real gems in there. I'm legitimately concerned that creativity and problem-solving will be huge decline over the next few decades.... after all, why struggle with a problem when you can just be entertained?
I do think there might be some rose-tinted nostalgia there though... my Grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary, which was amazing... but they were also miserable with each other and so so mean the entire time I knew them. My parents got divorced and life was better for all of us... the weekend-long screaming matches throughout our youth we're so pleasant.
My Dad has a 12 year old and a 15 year old, and their lives are so different to mine and my sisters. Our parents never knew where we were... and we were only allowed to play inside if it was raining. We got into scrapes and tight spots all the time, and we had to get ourselves out of them... whereas now, my half-brother and sister literally can't do anything themselves... my Dad seriously runs around after them doing everything. It's so weird. I'm such a cranky old man.
The marriage thing was an iffy thing to include as one-size-doesn't-fit-all, but I think society has sort of a video game reset button on the situation. Just get a divorce and shop around for another mate that might be better. Sometimes the issues that cause a marriage to struggle or fall apart are inherent in the mates themselves, so unless they're worked out/addressed with self-reflection, history could easily repeat itself. There are plenty of good reasons to get a divorce, but there are also plenty of people who don't know what being married means, and they act in ways to sabotage or hurt it. As for me, I was engaged once (much younger) but we broke it off just before the wedding because I knew it wasn't going to work.
Since you're a ninja, I never doubted for a second that you were playing Tarzan as a kid, and probably into your early teens. As for your half-siblings... military prep school? Thanks for sharing.
Ah, I didn't know that... I'm glad you two called off the engagement. Honestly, I seriously think that only like 5-10% of the population should be getting married... committing to anything for the rest of your life seems so strange to me. I mean, if I had to pick one car or one job or one mobile phone for my entire life - I'd be racked with indecision... let alone a whole person who changes as they grow... it's so weird.
I completely agree that people throw in marriages way too easily, but I'd personally say it's because 'getting married' is seen as such an achievement... which is distracting.