APRIL FOOLS’ DAY
A peculiar date to get married
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It is April Fools’ Day.
Many years ago, on April Fools’ Day, my parents made a slapdash trip southward into the USA to get married.
Who chooses to marry on April Fools’ Day? I am always amused when I think about the absurdity of the entire situation. Like, what the H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks were they thinking?
Something tells me that they weren’t thinking about the implications of their choices. They were simply doing. Doing what the socio-religious rules of the day combined with their biological urges dictated.
It was a time when one pretended to adhere to religious and social doctrine. They faked chastity and purity because that’s what was required to fit into society. Getting “hitched” eliminated small-town rumours even if the marriage license did bring with it a plethora of more complicated problems.
Dad was only 20 years old on their wedding day - not even legal to consume alcohol. Yet he could drive to another country and sign a binding, life-long contract with my mom. She was the ripe old age of 23 at the time. After swearing their *sacred* vows at a courthouse, they visited a local bar where my dad was kicked out for being underage. How does any of this story make sense?
Today’s socio-religious norms have evolved immensely from the models my parents pretended to observe. But we have not wholly achieved equality and respect for people who refuse to be quashed by a concocted religion under a manufactured patriarchal structure.
Those fearful of losing their elite dominion over others have recently launched an attempt to revive the ideology of patriarchal religion. They have found themselves reeling from the realization that the grip they once had on their timid flock has been dramatically diminished. They can no longer “other” and shame a society that will not buy what they sell - those wealthy men behind the churches. Those charlatans who train their human tools to misrepresent the teachings of Christ, preaching from a Bible that was written and re-written by powerful men for powerful men.
Many still carry fear, hatred, prejudice and contrived religious ignorance only because they are told to do so. Told by their forebears, their society and the religions that control them. They do not question the value of their biases. Instead, they blindly adhere to them.
There is no room in a healthy functioning society for patriarchy, power imbalance, inequity, inequality or inherited hatred.
The unyielding bitterness of dominionists must be left in the past so that the brightness and possibility of the future can become our new reality. We need relief from our suffering under the oppression of artificial religious conformity designed solely to control the masses.
