THE GIFT OF THE MAGI
Those of you who are more "mature" Marines & Sailors will remember one of the pre-eminent TV series of the '50's, Rod Serling's Twilight Zone. Many of these programs were quite scary, but they usually had a good moral and made the point in a rather unforgettable manner.
On one episode, an astronaut is readying for his blast off on a fifty-year mission to outer space. He is to be placed in a state of suspended animation and will not age one day by the time he returns to Earth. As fate has it, he meets a lovely woman the evening before launch, and it is love at first sight for both of them. They agonize over the love and marriage they will be unable to share because of the space voyage. The next morning his space flight begins. The woman is visibly shaken by the cruel plot fate played on the two of them. In the final scene, fifty years hence, NASA brings the rocket back to Earth. The capsule is opened and an aged man emerges from inside. He pulled the plug on the cryogenic machine before the launch. The face of his fiancée is then shown. She is still young and vibrant; she had herself placed in suspended animation on the day of the launch! One engineer then reflects: I feel blessed to have met two people who truly knew the meaning of love! End of program. These two people, motivated by real love, were prepared to make an unusual sacrifice for each other. Sometimes we forget that keeping love strong in marriage requires a commitment to LOVE...and like any commitment, that means dedication, work, sacrifice. Too many people give up on relationships when the going gets rough because they don't understand how much effort and sacrifice for one another is necessary to sustain a marriage. May we all realize the true meaning of love and marriage...and what is required to sustain this wonderful gift from above! Rod Serling's version
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