Some friends have commented on yesterday’s entry about my correspondent who argued that a relationship without a clearly defined male head of household and female non-head is defective. One comment, which I found very interesting, was the observation that analogies and similarities Do Not Work That Way. Even if we grant that a marriage is supposed to reflect the nature of Christ’s relationship to the Church, that doesn’t mean that having a different structure of marriage has any impact on Christ’s relationship to the Church. Good point.
Another friend commented on the two heads, or no head at all, aspect. Occasionally, through whatever defects, animals are in fact born with two heads, or with essentially non-functional heads. What should our response be to them? Should we have compassion on them?
I sort of like that. I would not be offended by a description of my marriage as having two heads; we don’t have a clear leadership role, but rather defer to each other in areas of comparative expertise. And that works for us. Maybe it’s not the best or most efficient way of being, but it is the way we have.
I think it is a wonderful thing that there are so many ways of seeing and thinking about things.