Say Forever

“They say 'nothing lasts forever,' but they're just scared it will last longer than they can love it.” – Ocean Vuong

Whenever I hear wedding vows and the word ‘forever’ is uttered, I wonder,

"How do you know?"

They don’t. Obviously.

Life has as many trials and tribulations as there are delights and jubilations. “How can you be so certain that anything, let alone love, will last until the end of our time on this earth?”

But in that moment, where two people see only hope and possibility in each other’s eyes, I suspend my disbelief if only because I admire their audacity to dare.

"How do you know? How do you know know?"

They probably don’t. How can they?

But maybe, just maybe, by being brave enough to utter this promise, to each other, to themselves, today and every day, to try and try and try again, it will be enough.

Enough to cool boiling anger into a gentle simmer.

Enough to hold frayed lines of communication until a single clear message can come through.

Enough to illuminate the darkest room if only to just a deep purple.

"How do you know? How do you not know?"

But it was never about knowing.

It was about believing.

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BTS: This beginning quote from Ocean Vuong sparked an idea that I've held for a long time. Inspired by Ocean's poetry, I decided to play it loose with this piece's structure and let the freeflow of thoughts form whatever seemed right: not quite a poem, not quite an essay either. The callbacks or internal allusions help show the evolution of an initial, quite certain idea to growing uncertainty and doubt, concluding in certainty again.

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