TENTANG EPISODE INI
“Till death do us part” was written in 1549, when the average person lived to 43. It promised about 19 years. Today it is asked to cover 57.
Same six words. Nearly triple the sentence. And we have been quietly blaming ourselves for the difference ever since.
If you have ever stood in a hard season of a long marriage and wondered what is wrong with you, this one is for you.
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In this first episode of a new series, Leslie Mathews pulls apart the most sacred six words we have. Not to argue against marriage, she is emphatic that she is not anti-marriage, but to ask whether a promise calibrated for two decades can honestly carry five.
She traces the vow back to Thomas Cranmer and the 1549 Book of Common Prayer, where the original line read “till death us depart.” She looks at what changed between then and now: gray divorce, longer lives, remarriage, and a legal system that makes leaving punishing. And she makes the case that the problem is not the length of the promise at all, it is that we confused the word with the thing.
Forever is easy. It costs nothing at the altar because it asks nothing of you tomorrow morning. Presence is hard. Presence is choosing someone on an ordinary Tuesday when the dishwasher is broken and nobody is watching.
And if your marriage already ended: you did not fail at forever. Forever was never the thing. The choosing every day was the thing.
CHAPTERS
00:20 The Warning: I’m About to Ruffle Some Feathers
01:10 A Promise Written When People Died at 43
02:30 Welcome to Pulling Threads
03:00 To Be Clear: I Am Not Anti-Marriage
03:50 Thomas Cranmer, 1549, and “Till Death Us Depart”
04:30 The Math Nobody Tells You: 19 Years
05:30 Gray Divorce and the Glow-Up
06:10 From 19 Years to 57 Years
07:00 Where the Shame Actually Comes From
07:50 My Own Nineteen Years
08:40 Blame the Programming, Not Yourself
09:30 Forever Is Easy. Presence Is Hard.
11:10 The Loom: Cloth Left Unattended Unravels
12:45 The Irony, We Stop Trying Because We Promised
13:35 Keep Dating the Person You Married
14:20 What Would You Promise Now?
15:00 If Your Marriage Already Ended
THIS IS PART 1
Over the next few weeks: the research, what an unhappy marriage does to your body, the pushback, and the vow I would write instead. Subscribe so you catch the rest.
ALSO FROM THE LOOM LIFE
THROUGH, divorce coaching for women, mentioned in this episode:
https://theloomlife.com/throughdivorceprogram
FIND ME
The Loom Life → https://theloomlife.com
Loom Life Therapy → https://loomlifetherapy.com
Leslie Ellen Mathews → https://leslieellenmathews.com
Instagram → https://instagram.com/the.loom.life
TikTok → https://tiktok.com/@leslieellenmathews
A NOTE ON SUPPORT
This episode touches on marriage strain, divorce, and grief. If you are struggling, please reach out to someone. In the US you can call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or text HOME to 741741 for the Crisis Text Line. Outside the US, findahelpline.com will point you to local support. Nothing here is therapy or a substitute for it.
TELL ME
What would you promise now, knowing what that word actually asks of you? I read the comments.
Keywords: till death do us part meaning, wedding vows history, marriage vows explained, gray divorce, how to heal after divorce, rebuilding identity after divorce, long marriage problems, personal growth podcast for women over 40, mental health podcast for women, relationship coaching
#TillDeathDoUsPart #MarriageVows #GrayDivorce #DivorceRecovery #PullingThreads
TAMPILKAN CATATAN 🔗
TRANSKRIP 🔗
Kind: captions
Language: en
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Once you're not winning them over
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anymore, many people stop trying to keep
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them. So, the missing piece is the
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in-between, the vow and the end of the
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marriage.
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>> [music]
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>> Today, we are going to be talking about
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a very touchy subject. I'm just going to
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I'm going to say up front that I'm going
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to ruffle some feathers. I just ask that
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if you're listening, stick with me for a
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little bit. This may not be exactly what
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you think, okay? We're going to talk
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about the words till death do us part
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and what they mean and where they came
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from and why they might not be serving
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us the way we would like them to. So,
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hang in there, gang. Like, if you're
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here with me and you're listening, this
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might at first seem like an offensive
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idea. When they first wrote the words
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till death do us part, guess how long
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the average person lived?
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43. I've been doing my research.
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So, the promise that you think means
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forever, when it was originally written,
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it meant about 19 years because people
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lived to 43. Now, people live to 80, 90,
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100 easily. And that number is sometimes
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tripled
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in years. So,
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we have kept the exact same six words
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for 500 years and we quietly tripled the
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sentence. And let me show you what I
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mean, all right? Again, hang with me. I
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started thinking about this when I was
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watching a show and they said till death
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do us part and I thought, my god, like,
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no one's staying that long. And that
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seems like such an old-school part of
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wedding vows and vows we make to people.
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It almost seems like a lie in this day
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with how much divorce there is and how
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much separation is and how normal it is
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for people to move on. Do we really mean
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it? Let's dig in a little bit and more
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importantly talk about is that phrase
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serving us the way it was intended to
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and do we live in a world where it can
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work. So, I'm Leslie. This is The Loom
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Live. This is Pulling Threads, part of
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The Loom Live, where we share ideas and
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stories that work through our
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programming and decide
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if we need to get rid of it or keep it.
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And this is the first episode in a
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series about those six words. So, maybe
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the most sacred six words we have, till
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death do us part, maybe not. Now, I
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really want to be clear about something
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before I go one sentence further because
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the conversation
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could easily be misheard and I want to
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be really clear. I am not anti-marriage.
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Anti-marriage. And I think that's
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really, really important for everyone to
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hear and accept. I am not anti-marriage.
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I am anti-lying at the altar. And I
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think many people are doing just that,
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whether they intend to or not. There is
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a difference and by the end of the
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video, I think you'll see what I mean.
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So, if you've ever stood up in a hard
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season of a long marriage, quietly
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wondered, "What is wrong with me?" this
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episode is for you and I hope you stay
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with me. So, I'm going to go back a
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little bit. These words aren't ancient
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in the way we imagine. They actually
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came from a man named Thomas Cranmer,
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who wrote them into
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something called the Book of Common
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Prayer in
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1549.
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Yes.
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15 49. All right? It's a bit ago.
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And the original line was a little bit
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softer than the one that we use. It
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wasn't part, it was
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till death us depart, where depart just
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meant separate. Two people separated by
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death. That's the image we have. Here's
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the part that nobody tells you.
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In 1549, life expectancy in England,
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where this originated, was somewhere in
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the low 40s. It was around 43. So,
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picture a couple getting married in
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their mid-20s.
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On average, how long did they actually
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get together before death did the
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parting? About 19 years. And that was
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long, right?
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So, marriage back then was rarely this
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decades-long endurance event that we
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imagine now. I mean, we imagine growing
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old together when we say till death do
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us part. And I think in the age of gray
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divorce and all of these all we hear
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about are divorces. And in addition to
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the gray divorce, just divorce after 50,
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we're hearing about people on both
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sides, men and women, glowing up after
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their gray divorce, looking younger,
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getting healthier, living their best
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life. So, I think we need to take a
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pause and like really think about these
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words. And I'm going to think about them
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on many, many, many different levels.
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Because I want to be clear, I do think
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having a partner and a connection for
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most of our adulthood, always having
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someone who's our person, whether it's
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in a relationship, a friendship, or a
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close family member, I think that is a
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critical part of aging well and staying
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healthy. So, don't get me wrong. I do
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not think that everyone should be alone.
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I quite the opposite. But, it was
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marriage back then was rarely this long
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thing. It was often like just a chapter
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of the person's life and ended early
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because there was illness, childbirths,
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and bodies were just more fragile back
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then. So, widowhood was actually really
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common and remarriage was common. People
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loved and they grieved and then they
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loved again, especially women. They
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needed to get remarried. So, it wasn't
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uncommon for women in their 40s to find
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a new spouse, a new relationship. Now,
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if we do the math on our life, a couple
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getting married today can expect around
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57 years together. So, look at what
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actually happened. We took the same six
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words, words that were calibrated for
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about two decades of marriage, and
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without changing a single letter, we
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stretched them across more than half a
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century. Just let that sink in and let
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the trends that we're seeing now set
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into. Look at the age where people are
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getting divorced. I don't think it's an
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accident. We are the first humans in
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history asked to keep this promise for
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that long and we're not the best at it.
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We're not the most devoted.
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We are not. And I think that quietly
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reframes so much of the shame I see in
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people I work with. They're so ashamed
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that they couldn't make this thing work.
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Because when a marriage starts to strain
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at year 20 or 25 or 30, we assume the
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failure was personal and the person
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failed. You know, we assume we failed. I
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didn't try hard enough. Other people
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manage forever.
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What's broken in me? Okay, those old
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marriages that lasted 19 years, that's
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exactly how many years I was with my
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ex-husband. So, in those terms, I made
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it. I got to the end of the road of But
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I didn't die. I didn't die at 43.
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Or even in my 40s. Here I am at 50. So,
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I think that this shame we hold about
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not keeping this promise is more
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indicative of a need for a change in the
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promise. We're going to keep digging
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into that idea. Just
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with me. Some of you are probably really
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mad, but it's okay. Rather than think
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what's broken in me, I think we need to
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think about what's
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broken in this programming we have that
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tells us that we need to meet someone in
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our 20s and stay with them until we're
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100 years old. Let's think about the
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programming more than blaming ourselves.
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Forever was never even the historical
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assignment. We inherited the language of
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a 19-year promise. And we've been
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holding ourselves to a 57-year one and
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then blaming ourselves for the ache of
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the difference and being punished
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financially with a system that makes
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going through the divorce process
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ridiculously miserable. So, here's where
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I want to go a little bit deeper. Cuz I
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don't think the problem is really the
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length of the promise, to be honest. I
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think we've confused the word with the
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thing. And the word is forever.
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And forever
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is easy. It costs you nothing at the
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altar because it asks nothing of you
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tomorrow morning. Let that sink in. You
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can promise forever and then spend 30
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years slowly disappearing inside it,
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going through the motions, sleeping next
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to someone that you don't turn toward
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anymore, mistaking endurance for love.
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The word doesn't care whether you
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actually are there. It just needs you to
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say it. The thing, the making it work
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and loving this person, the verb love,
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that's hard. And some people do it and
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some people do it really beautifully.
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So, I'm not saying it's impossible. I'm
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saying it's hard. And saying I'm going
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to be with you for
00:10:29.240 --> 00:10:30.510
I'm going to put this ring on your
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finger and I'm going to stay with you
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forever is easy. The thing is presence.
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It's choosing a person on an ordinary
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Tuesday when nothing is romantic and the
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dishwasher is broken and you're both
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tired in that specific way that long
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marriages and families and children and
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responsibilities make you tired.
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Nobody's watching. No one's crying at
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the altar and you choose these people
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anyway. That's what we need. We need to
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keep choosing each other, but that
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choice, repeated, unglamorous, freely
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made choice, that's the actual substance
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of a life woven together. That's what's
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important. And it's braver than any
00:11:14.360 --> 00:11:15.870
promise of permanence because
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permanence, once you've promised it,
00:11:18.360 --> 00:11:21.070
requires nothing more from you.
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Presence, showing up every day, requires
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a lot. So, this is the
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loom, the weaving that I keep coming
00:11:30.160 --> 00:11:32.950
back to. It's in the name. A marriage
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was keep or you cut. It's cloth.
00:11:35.760 --> 00:11:39.630
Woven every day by every small choice.
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And here's the thing about cloth. Left
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unattended, it unravels. We have to keep
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weaving it. We have to keep working with
00:11:48.120 --> 00:11:49.630
it. We have to keep taking care of it
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and giving it attention. That's the
00:11:51.840 --> 00:11:55.590
part, I think, the promise of till death
00:11:55.600 --> 00:11:58.110
do us part. That's where the disservice
00:11:58.120 --> 00:12:03.070
is. It's telling someone that I promise
00:12:03.080 --> 00:12:04.150
you
00:12:04.160 --> 00:12:06.350
I will be with you forever, but we're
00:12:06.360 --> 00:12:08.830
not promising them that we're going to
00:12:08.840 --> 00:12:11.390
show up when things get hard, and when
00:12:11.400 --> 00:12:14.430
they get sick or we get sick. We're not
00:12:14.440 --> 00:12:17.110
promising that we keep
00:12:17.120 --> 00:12:19.550
working on the relationship and that we
00:12:19.560 --> 00:12:22.350
keep both keep evolving. And as one
00:12:22.360 --> 00:12:24.910
person changes, we keep making the
00:12:24.920 --> 00:12:27.110
effort to keep falling back in love with
00:12:27.120 --> 00:12:28.430
them even though they've changed
00:12:28.440 --> 00:12:32.230
dramatically. We bypass and we say till
00:12:32.240 --> 00:12:35.630
death do us part. And I think the words
00:12:35.640 --> 00:12:37.870
themselves are part of the problem,
00:12:37.880 --> 00:12:39.790
because I think the moment we say it and
00:12:39.800 --> 00:12:42.430
we sign the contract, many, many, many
00:12:42.440 --> 00:12:44.950
people stop trying because we've
00:12:44.960 --> 00:12:47.590
promised them now we're being almost
00:12:47.600 --> 00:12:50.310
like a forced We made a promise,
00:12:50.320 --> 00:12:51.750
probably that we don't not going to
00:12:51.760 --> 00:12:56.190
keep. And the irony is the reason we
00:12:56.200 --> 00:12:58.510
won't keep it is because we made it. The
00:12:58.520 --> 00:13:00.790
reason we won't stay, the reason why we
00:13:00.800 --> 00:13:02.550
won't make it work, the reason why we
00:13:02.560 --> 00:13:06.590
won't keep working at it is because we
00:13:06.600 --> 00:13:09.550
each promised each other. And so there
00:13:09.560 --> 00:13:12.270
is a belief that this person can't leave
00:13:12.280 --> 00:13:14.829
me now. They can't leave me. Not they
00:13:14.839 --> 00:13:18.270
won't leave me. So, when we talk to
00:13:18.280 --> 00:13:20.190
married people, when I work with married
00:13:20.200 --> 00:13:22.950
couples, they stop making an effort.
00:13:22.960 --> 00:13:25.110
Why? They don't have to anymore.
00:13:25.120 --> 00:13:27.350
Once they don't have to win person over
00:13:27.360 --> 00:13:31.030
in this culture, once you're not winning
00:13:31.040 --> 00:13:34.190
them over anymore, many people stop
00:13:34.200 --> 00:13:36.550
trying to keep them. So, the missing
00:13:36.560 --> 00:13:40.270
piece is the in-between, the vow,
00:13:40.280 --> 00:13:42.670
and the end of the marriage. The missing
00:13:42.680 --> 00:13:45.710
piece is the effort we need. We need to
00:13:45.720 --> 00:13:47.830
almost forget we made the vow and
00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:51.830
pretend we're dating forever.
00:13:51.840 --> 00:13:53.190
Because when we're dating someone, they
00:13:53.200 --> 00:13:56.630
can leave us. And I believe one of the
00:13:56.640 --> 00:13:58.990
biggest parts of that we're kind of
00:13:59.000 --> 00:14:03.030
missing is not teaching people that you
00:14:03.040 --> 00:14:06.150
can't stop trying. You can't stop
00:14:06.160 --> 00:14:11.070
working, and you can't stop evolving and
00:14:11.080 --> 00:14:13.270
making the other person feel safe. They
00:14:13.280 --> 00:14:15.350
don't have to stay with you. It doesn't
00:14:15.360 --> 00:14:17.350
matter if they said till death do us
00:14:17.360 --> 00:14:20.310
part. Those words really don't mean
00:14:20.320 --> 00:14:23.030
anything if the person doesn't keep
00:14:23.040 --> 00:14:25.590
trying and keep working and keep
00:14:25.600 --> 00:14:27.630
recommitting every single day, over and
00:14:27.640 --> 00:14:30.790
over again. Every day, we recommit. And
00:14:30.800 --> 00:14:33.990
so, like I said, this is episode one in
00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:36.150
a series, and the question I want to
00:14:36.160 --> 00:14:39.950
leave you with today isn't should you
00:14:39.960 --> 00:14:42.110
have promised forever? It's a little
00:14:42.120 --> 00:14:43.910
more gentle than that. What would you
00:14:43.920 --> 00:14:47.270
promise now, knowing what that word
00:14:47.280 --> 00:14:50.190
actually asks of you? Not, I'll stay no
00:14:50.200 --> 00:14:53.030
matter what, something more honest and
00:14:53.040 --> 00:14:55.510
honestly more demanding. What about I
00:14:55.520 --> 00:14:59.030
choose you today. I into intend to keep
00:14:59.040 --> 00:15:01.110
choosing you, and I'll tell you the
00:15:01.120 --> 00:15:03.670
truth about whether I still can.
00:15:03.680 --> 00:15:05.350
Thoughts? I'm sure I'm going to have
00:15:05.360 --> 00:15:07.790
some stuff in my comments section that's
00:15:07.800 --> 00:15:09.710
going to be great, but
00:15:09.720 --> 00:15:11.550
that is not a smaller promise. It's a
00:15:11.560 --> 00:15:13.829
much bigger one. It just happens to be
00:15:13.839 --> 00:15:16.070
the one you can actually keep. And if
00:15:16.080 --> 00:15:18.030
your marriage already ended, I want you
00:15:18.040 --> 00:15:19.790
to hear this part especially. You didn't
00:15:19.800 --> 00:15:21.710
fail at forever.
00:15:21.720 --> 00:15:25.550
Forever was never a thing. The choosing
00:15:25.560 --> 00:15:28.510
every day was the thing. That was the
00:15:28.520 --> 00:15:30.550
thing. That's what we need to say in our
00:15:30.560 --> 00:15:32.830
vows. Over the next few weeks, I'm going
00:15:32.840 --> 00:15:35.150
to take this all the way apart. The
00:15:35.160 --> 00:15:37.670
research, what an unhappy marriage does
00:15:37.680 --> 00:15:40.350
to your actual body, the pushback I get,
00:15:40.360 --> 00:15:43.070
and the vow I'd write instead of this
00:15:43.080 --> 00:15:44.870
one. If something in this loosened a
00:15:44.880 --> 00:15:46.950
knot you've been carrying, that feeling
00:15:46.960 --> 00:15:48.870
is worth listening to. It's the whole
00:15:48.880 --> 00:15:51.110
work at The Loom Life, and there are
00:15:51.120 --> 00:15:52.950
links in the description if you'd ever
00:15:52.960 --> 00:15:55.310
like to talk it through with someone, or
00:15:55.320 --> 00:15:58.510
you need extra support. It is offered
00:15:58.520 --> 00:16:00.590
through The Loom Life in many different
00:16:00.600 --> 00:16:04.470
forms, in my school community,
00:16:04.480 --> 00:16:06.390
through coaching, and through a program
00:16:06.400 --> 00:16:08.870
called Through, where I help women
00:16:08.880 --> 00:16:12.550
specifically go through divorce
00:16:12.560 --> 00:16:15.510
in a much [music] more peaceful way. And
00:16:15.520 --> 00:16:17.590
kind of walk alongside them to help
00:16:17.600 --> 00:16:19.230
support [music] them through. Till next
00:16:19.240 --> 00:16:24.466
time. I'll wait to hear from you.
00:16:24.476 --> 00:16:31.671
>> [music]
00:16:31.681 --> 00:16:33.701
[music]