Commitment and marriage examples

Commitment (example Marriage)

Commitment

The idea of commitment means many different things, depending on the person that is asked the question. Generally, commitment means deciding on something - a course of action, a person, an idea, etc. - and then remaining with that, regardless of what else happens. However, an extended definition of commitment is more complex than that. For purposes of this paper, marriage will be used as an example to provide an extended definition of commitment, which will provide a clearer understanding to the reader of what commitment actually means, or at least should mean to people today.

In days gone by, when people got married they stayed that way. Now, that usually is not the case. Of course there are times when most people would agree that the marriage commitment should be broken, such as when a spouse is very abusive and will not seek any type of help for this issue. There are probably other circumstances, too, but that is not what this paper is about. The point is that more people used to remain married and take their commitment seriously, but there are still some people that take this type of commitment seriously, in the way that they should.

When two people make a commitment to one another on their wedding day, those vows are to be taken seriously. It is difficult to tell, anymore, if people really listen to and think about the words that they are saying when they get married or whether they simply go through the motions of the ceremony. Because of this, commitment gets avoided by individuals that are claiming to be completely immersed in it, which is unfortunate for the multitude of now-divorced individuals out there in the world today that made a deep commitment that their partner chose not to honor.

Commitment is not about 'just for today,' when one is standing there in the white dress or the tuxedo. Commitment is about a lifetime. People that are truly committed stand by one another no matter what takes place in their lives. The people that are still married even though he or she had an affair, but they worked it out, got through it, and got past it - that's commitment. The elderly woman that sits by her husband's bedside every day as his life slowly slips away - that's commitment. The man or woman that stands by his or her partner and the life he has chosen even though their child was born severely handicapped - or maybe they cannot have children at all - that's commitment. The elderly man who painfully makes his slow way to the cemetery to lay flowers on his wife's grave, even though she's been gone 10 years, and there's never been anyone else - that's commitment.

Commitment is about the small things in life much more than the big things. The big things, like why there is life in the first place and how come we are required to die, are questions that cannot be answered. Those things are too big for people today, but there are so many small things in life that are so very important, and they make life worth living, no matter what else might be going on at the time. People that find those small things, understand them, and appreciate them, are the people that are truly blessed, lucky, or whatever term an individual wants to use for it.