The Diploma

There was once a land where people had a very peculiar way of selecting a marriage partner.

 

Men and Women in that land would attend, part time, a marriageability course lasting several years and involving regular difficult tests and assessments and at the end of the course would receive an Ideal Marriage Candidate diploma.

 

It was not a legal requirement but people in that land respected the diplomas so much that men and women all hoped to marry someone who had one since, in their eyes, the holders of such a diploma had been judged an “Ideal spouse”.

 

Unfortunately, it made getting married very difficult for those who either hadn’t attended the course or had but hadn’t managed to achieve a diploma.

 

For example, there was a girl named Floria who had gone through the marriageability course three times and failed every time. She really wanted to meet a nice man and get married, preferably to a man who had a marriageability diploma but because she didn’t have a marriageability diploma men just weren’t interested in her.

 

But then, one day, in desperation Floria went to her friend Toby who happened to be an expert at forging certificates.

 

Toby was very much in love with Floria but he didn’t believe in Marriage Diplomas and Floria said she wouldn’t marry a man who didn’t have one, yet because he longed to see Floria be happy he forged a fake diploma for her, one that looked identical in every way to a real one.

 

And when she had the fake marriage diploma, it was as if some fairy god mother had sprinkled love glitter all over her for suddenly handsome men were queueing up to marry her and as well as being wonderful men they all had marriage diplomas.

 

And not long afterwards Floria was married to a man named Vincent in a beautiful, expensive, romantic church wedding; almost Floria’s dream wedding.

 

But, after they were married, Floria began to worry that her husband might find out that her marriageability diploma wasn’t real.

 

“What if he finds out and he divorces me”, she thought.

 

Now you might say,

 

“If her husband loves her why would it matter and if he doesn’t, why be married to him”.

 

Unfortunately, people in that land  were very superficial and Floria herself, if you remember, had only wanted to marry a man with a diploma and may well have divorced someone whose diploma wasn’t real.

 

And then something awful and unexpected happened; her husband received an invitation to an Alumni ball; a reunion of men and women who had received marriageability diplomas and had married other people with diplomas.

 

It was terrible news for Floria because if she went to the ball with her husband she wouldn’t have an invitation and her husband would know then that her diploma was fake.

 

Fortunately, the invitation had come while her husband was out of the house and so she hid it from him but she was sure he would find out about it because all their friends had marriage diplomas.

 

So, in desperation, she went back to Toby to ask him to make a fake invitation for her and though he was all against the idea and said that she should just tell her husband the truth; she was certain that her husband, being as superficial as she, would leave her.

 

And Toby could only bear so much of seeing Floria be miserable so he made her a fake invitation but before he gave to her he said to her, “Diplomas do not make an ideal marriage. Love makes an ideal marriage. Without love nothing else matters”.

 

But Floria didn’t listen she told Toby that he was silly to want to be a rebel when it would probably mean he would spend his life alone.

 

However, then the day of the Alumni ball came and Floria started to have second thoughts and she asked her husband,

 

“Do you love me?”.

 

“Of course”, he replied, “You’re the perfect wife”.

 

“But what if I wasn’t perfect”, she asked, “For example, what if I didn’t have a marriageability diploma. Would you still love me?”.

 

“Well no of course not”, her husband said, “I wouldn’t have married you if you hadn’t had a diploma but you do have a diploma so why worry about it”.

 

And so Floria didn’t say anything more on the subject; she continued getting ready and then they both went to the ball.

 

But as they were dancing, Tobys words kept going around in Floria’s head, “Without love nothing else matters”.

 

Then suddenly, she felt as if she could take anymore of living with her deception in a loveless marriage and, telling her startled husband the truth, she ran out of the ball.

 

And she went back to Toby who she realised she was really meant to be with for though they weren’t perfect couple, they had love and because of that they lived happily ever after.