10.05.2008 - 3:02 p.m.

One of my tutors got married last night. The groomsmen were all in kilts, the bridesmaids all wore Converse with their dresses, the centerpieces were white garden gnomes, and considering the personalities involved, these things were all exactly as they should be. Beautiful, too; the ceremony was outside, while night fell over the bay.

And I think maybe you could track a life based on a person's reactions to weddings.

This time, I felt jaded. I listened to so many people say they just knew the bride and groom were meant for each other, for no clear reason beyond the fact that they wanted it to be true, when only a few even mentioned how hard it is to share an entire life. I wanted to tell them they were too young to understand what they were promising, and to quit joking around because this was serious.

I didn't, though, because I'm not aware of an age where humans become any more prescient than they already are at twenty-one. And those two, they were happy. They meant their vows, whether they grasped the implications or not. The saying of them made them glow, and their loved ones smile. What would I have them do instead, wait until they are crotchety and incontinent?

So I am left with this: It was a lovely wedding. They seem young, but perhaps they are made for each other. Perhaps the events of their lives will even allow that to matter. With all my heart, I wish them the peace of small regrets and large delights.

-stonebridge

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