Getting Married by George Bernard Shaw
Most evenings while hiking the JMT we found ourselves too exhausted to read. We would eat a hot meal, zip ourselves up into our sleeping bags, and put on a podcast to fall asleep. Twelve days in we had a short six-mile hike before setting up camp in the early afternoon. The sky was overcast and the sun quickly disappeared behind the peaks around us. We climbed into the tent early, zipped ourselves up in our bags, and this time I pulled my sleeping liner over my head to create a warm cocoon. I turned on my kindle and looked for something to read.
I'm not sure how I decided on a Shaw play or how I decided on this particular one. I was surprised when it began with a lengthy preface discussing the future of marriage. I couldn't decide if his arguments were progressive for his time (I'm assuming they were but then he did have a sentence talking about the different types of "old maids"). Ultimately he was arguing for reasonable divorce laws in early 20th century England. I couldn't help wondering what he would think of the state of marriage at is now. Or what he would think of two people, unmarried but committed to one another and spending three weeks hiking the wilderness together...
The play wasn't one of my favorites (like Saint Joan or Arms and the Man) but it did have a few great quotes.
“Your fishes and your catechisms and all the rest of it make a charming poem which you call your faith. It fits you to perfection: but it doesn’t fit me. ”
“Mrs. George: I don’t understand. I am a woman: a human creature like yourselves. Will you not take me as I am?
Soames: Yes; but shall we take you and burn you?
The Bishop: Or take you and canonize you?”