Once upon a time there was a little girl in her £80 dress that didn’t care what they drank, or what the first song was, or what flowers she carried or the cake they ate. There was a sparkle in her eye that blinded her to the guests, on lookers, well wishers and even the vicar. She only had eyes in one direction.

But for all her belief in love, she was naïve. She was stepping off down a long road, which despite twists and turns and ups and downs would never come to a fork, a t-junction or a dead end; but she’d been blinded by the sparkle and never saw how rough the road really was.

Very quickly the sun went in, the dark clouds descended. The ring it seemed had begun to tighten around her new husband’s finger; he cried like it was around his neck instead. The little girl focused on playing house whilst he played away and was rewarded by broken plates and broken bones.

At Christmas, it wasn’t all snow that was white or wine that was red, at Easter it wasn’t only Easter eggs that had to be hunted for. In summer, the front door was always open, but no one ever came through it, came home. By winter she was left alone to frighten away the cold. The little girl learned that money and pain and fear and heartbreak was all there was left, that pain was real and clung on once the respect was gone.

But then the day came, with the help of another, that she realised that she could walk away, broken, miss-led, ashamed, but alone. When the light finally began to creep back in, and she could let go of that friends hand, she realised she had only taken one thing with her, one lesson to move on….

And today, that little girl, despite being so naïve, knows that in marriage, only one thing matters – that love is never enough – and if you find your best friend, you’ve found the one.

Kx

P.s Even overlooking his misogynist tendencies, Nietzsche still might not be the obvious philosopher upon which to base an opinion of marriage upon, but you have to agree he has a point.