Renewing Vows

A Marriage in the Family

Indics practice the custom of renewing marriage vows at age 60. There doesn't appear to be a lot of explanations for it. Maybe there's a risk that they might forget … or does the woman feel that she's living with a stranger … and perhaps they ought to formalize their living together again. Nobody would speak of it … and in that lies the secret … of change … that manifest itself in a close personal relation … and yet does not reveal much of itself.

 

The great Saivite tradition … must have began … in great earnestness … probably around the 8^th C CE in India … in the grand expectation … of the alliance between man and God. In relation to its expectations … it no doubt suffered much diminishing … in its perceived size in the world. But in coming to view its role … beyond the Egyptian … Book of the Dead … the Indics may well view their role in the world today … as being confined to a specific … contribution … regarding human existence.

 

In such a major shift … in an individual's orientation to his faith … it may be necessary … for a person to come to a new relation with his beliefs. Perhaps it'll involve a new form … or manner of worship In any case … it is an all serving purpose for the individual to renew his vow of faith with it. It is a significant sense of acknowledging the change that has occurred. It refreshes the practice of socio-cultural artifacts … and brings new drive to the man.

 

Its strange somehow to run into an old girlfriend … at a familiar restaurant. It merely rekindles … the thought of what didn't work before. But to run into her … at a new restaurant … that is a statement of a new fashion … perhaps of the times … makes a much needed  impetus … to view it as a new possibility again. It creates the view that we are not breaking with the past … but perhaps finding a way to work harder … with a renewed vow.

 

Was man left-handed … from an early time … when he was run primarily by the instruments of the passions? Does that create a greater reliance on another part of the brain? Obviously fossilized evidence … doesn't give us much. But it does intimate to us … the extent of changes our bodies go through … in the transformation from a tribal commune … founded on the unabridged power of love … and the experience of literate urbanized societies .. founded on professional conduct.

 

In a marriage … love moves from the arms of dreams … to a shared knowledge of relations … founded on a common epistemology of the institutionalized home. We experience  the standardization of practices  … and eventually cultivate… a thesis of love.  Its a cake mix of relations that … is bound to alter its basic character … and renew itself … perhaps even by new customs …  in a new enactment of marriage.

 

In the world's experience … the beginning of languages … follows a pattern of relation … that came to be named as the Indo-European group of languages.  It would imply that the … acoustical variation between peoples in the world … follows a pattern of cultivation … that may be traced to the development of … the ego in the passions. Today English provides a crucial link … to the world's society … with respect to the transformation … from a provincial national outlook … to one that is global.

 

It came as a surprise to me … in my pre-adult years … when I was balancing English with Tamil … for that mind-passion relation. But when it appeared that my family background … was in some ways isolated (*1) from mainstream Tamil … I switched to English as the basis of the passions. This caused me some concern … at the beginning. The Tamil language … has a repertoire of meaning and intimations … that outstrips many other languages I have come across.

 

It surprised me that English stood up to the test … and in many cases … modernized parts of the Tamil language … for brevity … and greater conative purposes. And so I find in the curious relations … between my mind and passions … the suggestion of an old marriage that may be in need of renewing its vows. Its suggestive of something delicate … in the cues of social relations … that I'm grappling to understand. Just how … was the Indo-European scheme of languages begun … before we knew there were Europeans?

 

The classics hint at the fact that Hera … the wife of Zeus … in the legends … came from Asia minor. There's a smaller story of Dionysis II … asking Siva … for the hand of his daughter. In the nudge of politeness in relations of apparent proximity … we come to understand that a marriage … today may be revealing … of many things. And in the course of a lifetime … a husband and wife … might consider the suggestion of renewal in their relations. It brings to us … a light on the comment by Jonathan Swift … in Gulliver's Travels. He said ( paraphrased ) … that in travelling the world … he came to realize that ... what he sought ... was the family all along.

(*1) ... See The Ballad of a Truck Driver