Tugging at the Vows (Faith in Reverse Part 9)

Not all affairs involve sex.

If you’re new to this series, start here.

This story

is not linear. It’s forward and reverse. Step forward; step back. Let’s rewind.

I stood in the front of a brick-walled and columned sanctuary in Guntersville, Alabama. She came to me, took my hand, stood before the good preacher.

Repeat after him: “Till death do us part.” (We meant it as much as twenty-somethings can mean anything.)

Share a vow. Share a name. Kiss the bride.

***

Vows are stretched and strained over years. There are days when hearts grow cold or feet prone to wander or appetites voracious. There are moments when other bodies pull us like gravity, peeling the velcro of a vow apart. These affairs—are they always body-on-body? Are they always lusts? Aren’t they sometimes something more, even noble?

Vows are tested by many things, sex included. But also these things: belief, lack of belief, congregations, careers, the myriad ways a heart commits.