The Sunday School Lesson

The past two times I've been back to Eva for a visit I've been bombarded with questions about my prospects for marriage. The first memorable moment happened when I had gone home for a day a few weeks ago. I accompanied my parents to the swearing in of the newly elected commissioners in Morgan County during this visit. This little old lady, who it seems behaves inappropriately quite often (she walks into people's houses and goes straight to the bedrooms, commenting all the while on decorations and overall set-up of the house), asked some questions about where I worked and what I did. Her line of questioning then turned toward my personal life when she asked if I had a boyfriend. When I answered no, she ever so emphatically demanded I find one before it's too late.

This past weekend I ventured home again and was acosted four times in one weekend. The first came from a preacher. He and his wife had come over to go out to eat and on the way out the door he asked if I had a boyfriend. When I said no, he insisted that I "ought to get one just for the experience of it." It is my understanding that experience and dating do not necessarily go hand in hand. I didn't say anything in response, just smiled and nodded. Then at dinner an old family friend asked my mom if I had me a fella, and when she said no he said if he was 50 years younger and a lot better lookin' he'd ask me out. When we left I asked my parents if I had a look of desperation about me recently.

The next day at church the Sunday School teacher's husband was just trying to find out what had been going on in my life and he asked me the question. When I said no, his wife taught me perhaps the most important thing beyond Jesus Loves Me that I've ever learned in a lifetime of Sunday School: It's better to want what you don't have than to have what you don't want. I then sat through a sermon on seeing the silver lining in any situation (which got a little off course when the preacher started talking about how pitiful widows and widowers are--going home to fix meals for just one person and talking to the photos of their deceased spouses--I wonder what he thinks the never-marrieds do). The Sunday School lesson came in handy when the disgruntled old man from a previous post asked me yet again if I had a boyfriend. I gave him the Sunday School answer, and just like my mama before me, I shut him up real fast. I'm sure his wife would wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment.

Moral of the story: Don't ask. If you're important enough to me I'll tell you when the time comes.