marrying

Today in another blog (www.APracticalWedding.com), I came across this beautiful passage about marrying from "Pitching My Tent: on Marriage, Motherhood, Friendship and Other Leaps of Faith" (essays) authored by Anita Diamant ("The Red Tent," "The Last Days of Dogtown," and others.)


"Why marry? Because marriage publicly affirms the possibility of moving toward another person without reservation. With that momentum, we are propelled toward the center of the heart, toward the center of the universe, and however far that gets us is farther than we'd otherwise go alone. Why marry? Because every wedding enacts a personal connection to the universal story of the human hope for wholeness. Because by stepping into the hyperbarically charged space on the altar (in front of the priest, under the canopy), the bride and groom join in a dance that goes all the way back to the beginning of memory. Getting married is an attempt at turning air into matter, transforming the ineffable workings of the heart into things that are "real": the invitation, the dress, the ring. The words that constitute a wedding are magical incantations of the highest order. In the presence of witnesses and voiced by a vested authority, two people are pronounced a single unit. Ta-da! And by the way, the legal arguments for extending the marriage franchise to queer couples simply acknowledge that gay men and lesbians are members of the human family, complete with photographers, caterers, and the challenge of juggling Thanksgiving between two families of origin. Every wedding is an invocation of peace and wholeness and connection and joy. Good wishes flow from family and friends, through history and community, with wings and prayers and everything that might turn out to be holy in the universe. So that's why Jim and I got married --- to receive that shower of blessings, hoping with all our hearts to make them last."


Be sure to visit Anita's website here: http://www.anitadiamant.blogspot.com/.

I'm off to Amazon to order "Pitching My Tent." I want more of the above.