I know we're all broken, but...

I just recently learned of another broken engagement...
I'll be honest with you; that scares me.

Do people come to realize they're actually not as sure as they once thought they were? Can things happen that completely revoke the solidness and assurance that was there before? Or was there not any of that to begin with?

It's difficult for me to think of a broken engagement as anything less than a kind of divorce. And i'm not just talking about the really stupid, young, immature people who don't give the idea of engagement and marriage the gravity it merits; I'm also talking about people who seem to have good heads on their shoulders and good intentions in their hearts, but still fall apart. I didn't begin to hear of such brokenness until maybe a couple of years ago, and now it seems a frighteningly common occurance....Maybe it's always been like that and I was just too naive (more than I am now, which sometimes hardly seems possible, considering how ridiculous I can still be) to realize it before then.

In my idealized mind, it seems to me like promising yourself to someone would be something that you considered so carefully and prayerfully (over time, not in an all-nighter of reflection) and something you would be so utterly sure of, that backing out would never ever even need to be an option.

I'd like to think it would be that way.

But I know things happen. I just don't want to believe that they do.

Of course, I don't know most things. Anybody out there who can speak to me from experience, personal or otherwise? Because the last thing I need is another reason to be scared..