"Is there going to be a Marriage Conference this year?" he asked. I was surprised at the indication that he has noticed the piles of signs, gift baskets and registration forms inhabiting the entryway.

 

"Yes, there is."

 

"I want to go to it."

 

Now Ben is not married. I have not the slimmest anticipation that he ever will be. But that brief statement is enough to make me want to lay down and declare my life complete. 

 

I care about children. I care about the parents in the throes of raising them. That is why the Marriage Conference has always offered a complete onsite program for children. Over the years we have had magicians, animal shows, puppets, art projects, college students with basketballs, snacks, yoga, dance, cupcake baking, ceramics, music and a room full of toys. Many times parents are delighted with how happy their usually shy child is after a full day with strangers who no longer are. All of this comes, by the way, for $25 or one slot of volunteering. It does not make economic sense but I spend more on the children's program than on printing booklets, paying high school servers and advertizing combined. 

 

There are obstacles to enticing grown ups to come to the conference. People are reticent to explain it to me, seeing as I run the show, but I speculate. Yet children who can manage to remember back twelve of their forty eight months on earth come dancing through the door and into the fray. They want to be here. I have an inkling that twenty five years from now when some of them are themselves hitched, they will retain those eager feelings and sign up. 

 

I may or may not be able to reach the marriages within a ten mile radius that are hurting. But when a little boy with autism says he wants to go to the Marriage Conference, my work might just be finished. 

 

Photo by Jenny Stein

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