Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-06-18
WINlFRED BLACKS
w C ARTICLE

So they're going to cut the ''Obey'
out of the wedding ceremony. are they!
i wonder what they'll put in to take
its place.
And while they're about it, why don't
they do a little more cutting?
The woman promises to love, honor
and obey, the man vows to love, cherish
and Drotect-how about that promise
to .'protect?'
If you're going to cut out the 'obey,'
why not forget the protect at the
same time? That's playing fair, ism
lit?
"Obey-what a strange survival
that word is. Who obeys anyone in
this day and age? Why, the children
don't obey the parents, they don't
obey the teachers. You and ! don't
obey the laws of the land. Obey. 1t
lsounds like something carved o. a tomb
in some forgotten graveyard.
An Old. fashioned Word
Who wants anyone else to obey"
him, or her?
I don't want my child to do right
because l tell him to do right, or ] will
punish him. want him to do right
because it is right. because it makes
him happy to be kind and just and
generous, not because somebody says
he must do SO.
l don't want my friend to love me
because it is a duty. -.
don't want my sister to obey and
I am quite sure if she wanted me to
obey her, she would be apt to find her
self very much disappointed.
No courageous, self respecting soul
obeys or wants to obey slavishly any
other human being. .
Yes. that's an old-fashioned word
and it was an old -fa shioned man who
wrote it into the wedding ceremony.
Weddings were old-fashioned things,
even in that day.
The wedding ring used to be a sign
Of ownership-iike the collar of a
slave-and women in those days were
proud to he owned and ruled.
I wonder If they were very much less
unhappy than the women today.
Strange place to put such a word
into the wedding ceremony.
Love never asks obedience. never
wants obedience. Love demands SYM
patty and understanding-not obedi-
fence.
And yet. somehow. I don't think Id
like a girl very well who wouldn't
marry a man until she made the min
lister promise to cut the word obey
out of the beautiful old ceremony.
There is something wrong with her.
something stubborn and obstinate and
Notwithstanding little and nag
cling, and something selfish and egotist-
ical, or she'd never even think of rails
ing such q question.
For better or for worse. for richer
or for poorer. in sickness and in health.
until death do us part y would
dare to try TO improve upon the beauty
of these linked syllables?
Every letter of them ought to be
sacred to every woman who has a par
ticle of sentiment in her heart. Your
mother spoke those words-dear little
mother. can't you imagine her. as a
bride?
How Queer We Are
She wasn't afraid to promise to
Iobey-she knew and loved the man she
was marrying and she would have fol-
lowed him around the world if she had
knew that he loved. her, too and that
he would cherish and protect her as
long as he lived.
What would she have done if you
had said anything to her about chang
ing the marriage ceremony! why.
she loved it. every word of it. every
syllable of it. She loved to think of
it and to dream of it-this ceremony
that linked her to the n man she
loved as long as they both should live.
u How queer we are, We moderns. al
ways picking flaws in everything.
If I knew a girl who wanted the
I"obey'' taken out of the wedding cere-
mony and a man who refused to prom
Use 70 protect" her. I should go to their
wedding with a light heart-they'r re
well matched.
But woe to the poor. conf;ding man
who marries a girl who is so dead-set
on having her own way that she is
going to make a fuss about il at the
very altar
NV ~ yA..I- rIN.HfI E-,lo~2r