If you haven’t found a service member of your own, Prince Harry says he is looking for a good Army wife.
According to this story in the Mirror, Prince Harry, 30, is worried that he might get passed over for major if he doesn’t get married. “I’ll have to marry if I’m to stay in the Army. I don’t think I can climb the ranks as a bachelor,” Prince Harry allegedly told his friends.
That is pretty hilarious. I’m just an American, but I’m pretty sure no one is going to pass over a prince of the realm for major just because he isn’t married.
Isn't it time to get married?
On the other hand, it isn’t hilarious at all. A lot of service members find themselves in a similar spot when it comes to marriage. Military people are statistically more likely to be married at every age than their matched civilian counterparts. There is some pressure to be married around here.
For ol’ Harry, he has to be feeling it. His friends are married. His colleagues are married. His brother is married.
This is a bad time to get married.
I wanna tell him (and every other person in uniform) this is a very bad time to get married. The worst.
That moment that you look up and realize almost everyone is married or getting married except you and you suddenly start thinking that it is ‘time to get married’ is very bad indeed.
Because you don’t get married because you need an Army wife to promote your career. You don’t get married so that there is someone at home to take care of your dog. You don’t get married to have someone waving to you from the end of a pier or a flightline or an airport corridor.
This is a good time to marry.
In the military, you get married because you cannot bear to be away from that person for ten more minutes. You have to burn with the need to marry them. It has to wake you up in the middle of the night.
You marry them because you can’t imagine a life without them. You marry them because you want their babies (if you are babymaking people, that is). You marry them because when you picture them at age 70 or 80 you think they will be kinda cute and still have a lot to talk about over breakfast.
And they marry you. Because even though they know you will be deploying and it will be what Prince Harry calls ‘boring,’ they don’t care. They marry you because they would rather figure out how to have a life with you when you are home than wonder and ponder and sigh over your memory for the rest of their lives.
Military marriage must be bold. It is must be fierce. It must be undeniable. Better to enjoy the pleasures of single life forever than to settle for anything less. Even if you are a prince.
