Sunday with Eden | Nov 07,2020
Oct 3 , 2020
By Eden Sahle
Over the weekend, I read a great book called ‘Hope Heals: A True Story of Overwhelming Loss and an Overcoming Love.’ It tells the true story of a young couple’s sudden health-related tragedy, endurance and unfailing love.
Having gotten married right after their graduation at the age of twenty-two, their lives turned upside down by the age of 26, when the wife suffered a brain stroke.
The life-threatening bleeding in her brain not only left her severely handicapped but also added agony to their marriage, turning the husband into a caregiver and the wife into a patient. But amidst the crisis, the couple made sense of the tragedy and that pain that had suddenly swamped them.
It is a great book. It has inspiring marital stories, in which unwavering commitment and sacrifice creates a strong bond. It is incredible how her husband cares for his wife, giving up everything he had dreamed of in life and loves her unconditionally even when she became physically unrecognisable and handicapped to the point of needing his constant help to carry out the most basic of tasks.
We have similar, inspiring stories of commitment here in Ethiopia, among our close kin and friends. A relative of mine, who had been married for 28 years until her husband died almost a year ago, had a similarly inspiring story.
After they welcomed a daughter, she found a massive opportunity for her career. The husband left his job because there needed to be someone taking care of the children. He stayed home and did the house chores, even when many close friends gave disapproving opinions in line with the traditional culture that assumes that the man should be the breadwinner.
Bravely silencing the outside noise, they lived appreciating and supporting one another. They used this same determination to brave through when the husband had a minor spinal surgery that went terribly wrong and left him with paralysis. He lost his speech and became unable to eat solid food.
But at the same time, it was yet another opportunity for us to witness their strong bond. The wife left her job to take care of him. She became a full-time caregiver to her husband for over a decade until his last breath.
These couples are not individuals who have lost their rationality. They enter marriage aware of the fragility of life and the importance of being there for one another. They fully lived their covenant to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for better, for worse, for richer and for poorer – they kept their vows with deadly seriousness.
Recently, I was devastated to hear of a man that wanted to divorce his wife because she kept preparing the same type of meal, day in, day out. Fortunately, a religious father mediated between them, but it goes to show how many get into marriage with very little commitment to stick it through.
Marriages and divorces do help to gauge the socioeconomic conditions. One of the more interesting studies to have come out over the past decades has been the disparity in marriages, at least in developed countries, between high-income, working-class and low-income adults. The better-off ones are financially the more likely to get married. They are also less likely to cohabitate, have children out of wedlock or divorce.
What it means for later generations is depressing. Children that have lived with both of their biological parents are more likely to get a college education and have children at a younger age before they are able to support themselves. The socioeconomic consequences of this are huge.
It is thus the case that there may not be something inherently good about marriage, but it is clear that it is an indicator of an improvement in economic well-being. It is thus in economists’ interest to consider marriage in their understanding and analysis of welfare. It can be an indicator of a healthier society when conservative attitudes are held with an appropriate amount of esteem.
PUBLISHED ON
Oct 03,2020 [ VOL
21 , NO
1066]
Sunday with Eden | Nov 07,2020
Fortune News | May 08,2021
Radar | Apr 20,2019
Sunday with Eden | Jun 08,2019
Commentaries | Jan 03,2021
Sunday with Eden | Jun 13,2020
Featured | Apr 26,2019
View From Arada | Oct 16,2021
Sunday with Eden | Sep 14,2019
Sunday with Eden | Dec 14,2019
My Opinion | 111646 Views | Aug 14,2021
My Opinion | 107984 Views | Aug 21,2021
My Opinion | 106670 Views | Sep 10,2021
My Opinion | 104730 Views | Aug 07,2021
Commentaries | Oct 12,2024
Aug 18 , 2024 . By AKSAH ITALO
Although predictable Yonas Zerihun's job in the ride-hailing service is not immune to...
Jul 13 , 2024 . By AKSAH ITALO
Investors who rely on tractors, trucks, and field vehicles for commuting, transportin...
Jul 13 , 2024 . By MUNIR SHEMSU
The cracks in Ethiopia's higher education system were laid bare during a synthesis re...
Jul 13 , 2024 . By AKSAH ITALO
Construction authorities have unveiled a price adjustment implementation manual for s...
Oct 12 , 2024
In his inaugural address on October 27, 2024, Taye Atseqesellasie, the fifth presiden...
Oct 5 , 2024
Not long ago, the sight of exchange bureaus in Addis Abeba was as rare as a cloudless...
Sep 28 , 2024
In the early 2010s, Ethiopian authorities found themselves at odds with the Internati...
Sep 21 , 2024
A nurse in Addis Abeba shares a cramped one-room apartment with three colleagues. Her...
Oct 13 , 2024
A new directive by the Central Bank requiring coffee exporters to convert half of the...
Oct 13 , 2024 . By AKSAH ITALO
The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) is heightening its regulatory oversight of microf...
Oct 13 , 2024 . By BEZAWIT HULUAGER
Despite a substantial boost in budget and import volumes, farmers may contend with fe...
Oct 13 , 2024 . By BEZAWIT HULUAGER
Fuel prices have spiked, exacerbated by global supply disruptions and a weakening Bir...