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It doesn’t get more personal than marriage.  A personal decision that has serious life reverberations should have a master chef’s balance of seriousness and frivolity.  It’s a marriage, not a land deal (anymore).  A marriage is a song that’s somewhere between the extremes of Edwin McCain’s “I’ll Be” and Harry Belafonte’s “Man Smart, Woman Smarter”.  Something like Fats Domino’s “I Want to Walk You Home”.

Brad Pitt, who gave $100,000 to fight Prop 8 in California, may have to renege on his pledge to not marry Angelina Jolie until all gays could marry as well.  Five years ago, when they both stood up for gays and made this claim, I sniffed.  It seemed to me like the perfect thing for a marriage-shy cohabiting beautiful famous couple to say.  At the time, only two lefty New England states had marriage equality, Bush was president, and I heard “we’ll get married when everyone can get married” as a sweeter way of saying “we’ll get married when pigs fly.”

However, I was more cynical then.  I was unemployed after graduating college, putting on weight and being haughty about Angelina was just my line.

So, now that I am what Radiohead would call “fitter, happier and more productive,” what is a reformed cynic like me to think of Brad Pitt’s recent “I might have to marry soon” comments?  The text, from The Hollywood Reporter:

“We’d actually like to, and it seems to mean more and more to our kids.  We made this declaration some time ago that we weren’t going to do it till everyone can.  But I don’t think we’ll be able to hold out.  It means so much to my kids, and they ask a lot.  And it means something to me, too, to make that kind of commitment.”

Without a trace of snark, I say it was very nice of them to wait as long as they did.  Everyone should be able to do this.  It means that marriage means something if a person can’t go on without it.