Love Bears It Out

The ongoing tug of war over same sex marriage again reversed favor this week with Judge Walker's ruling on California's Proposition 8.   SSM opponents got their toes muddied when a mighty leftward yank of the rope pulled them unwillingly toward the quicksand of  - as they see it - social decline. 

The contention continues, however, as stays and appeals run their courses. While the rope inches back and forth, everyday life continues for couples of all gender combinations.  We're all doing the same things – tending house, raising children, and loving partners.  Yet some couples earn approval while others suffer reproach.  I realize that same sex couples have little choice but to maneuver in such an atmosphere but still, I admire their perseverance.

Here's a poem that speaks to the persistence of love.  Written long ago (obviously), it nevertheless casts a familiar light in today's climate. 

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Let me not to the marriage of true minds
(Sonnet 116)

William Shakespeare
Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark, That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken. Love ’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle’s compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error, and upon me prov’d, I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d.     http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19398