I got married in April.  A long time ago.  Ten years.  I got married when I was around sixteen, so that means I’m coming up on my last years in my twenties.  Perhaps I’m revising a bit of personal history.  I think I have one more year in my twenties.  I can tell you, though, that when I asked my wife–who wasn’t my wife then–to marry me, well, I asked.

I heard a back and forth the other day about sisters asking brothers to marry them, women asking men.  And the questions in the conversation were along the lines of how men would respond, should women propose, what difference does it make, etc?

My older brother popped the question in February.  I haven’t asked him if he’s set a date yet.  It’s amazing that I’ve meant to ask him, but I haven’t.  What can I say?  I’m distracted.  I ask him about my two nieces.  I ask him about his work.  We talk about exercise and maintaining health.  We ask each if we’re calling our parents.  I say something funny that our dad said.  He tells me something somebody told him to tell me.  We have a lot to talk about.  I cannot keep up with the details that send my mind back to wedding planning.

Anyway, Mark asked Keisha to marry him.  She said yes.  Yes is the key to getting the ring.  I always say that you shouldn’t show the ring until you hear the yes.  Ask Dawn if I had the box out before she said some synonym of “absolutely”.  Well, my brother and his fiancée are looking forward to life together.  But I wonder how Mark would have reacted to his intended asking him to marry her.

Does you have a thought about this?  Do men have to ask women to marry them?  Does it makes a difference for the relationship as you see it?