Wedding telegram

Transcript

In Japan it's customary to send a short telegram when we're unable to attend a wedding party. Here is a telegram that I'm sending to a young woman who graduated a couple of years ago.

Dear Beautiful Young Bride,

Congratulations! Today is a wonderful, fresh day as you and your husband begin your married life.

In the years ahead you will have both happy times and hard times. I hope that you will continue to love and care for each other, no matter what the future brings.

Best wishes for long and happy life together.

Gregory Peterson

Professor, Department of English Language and Literature

Kyoto Notre Dame University

That's it. In the telegram I used her real name, of course.

Telegrams have to be short, so it's hard to include everything I'd like to tell a young woman on her wedding day.

If I could use more words, I suppose I'd write something about how people change and how couples have to keep adjusting to each other. Marriage requires far more adjustment than most people can imagine. As couples get older, they have to keep adjusting to each other, even after many years of marriage. People change, sometimes a lot, and I think successful marriages change, too, in many ways.