From my first gig after graduating from Salt, Brian and Wilson’s wedding in Cambridge: perhaps this asks the question, “do you really want a documentary-style photographer shooting your wedding?” This is still one of my favorite images from that day.
But lest you get the wrong idea of how the day generally went — that’s not good documentary! — here is this picture, also.
Did I cry at this wedding? Of course, always.
What a strange, lovely thing we do, promising something as elusive as feelings, guaranteeing something as uncertain as the future. The potential for my own marriage has always alarmed the hell out of me, but weddings make it look so . . . natural. If you can love and give yourself to someone, you should. Just be there, take his hand. We create rituals for this kind of thing, so that you know what to do. We grant symbolism to the shape and materials of jewelry (forever, forever), to the weather that day (good luck, bad luck), to the color of your outfit (purity, beginnings). Everything means something today, if you want it to; everything can predict something else.
And everyone else you love is here too — like the circles we would form backstage in high school before opening night, chanting I will hold you up.
4 Comments
If this post wasn’t so sweet I would remind you what it means to beg the question.
Point taken!
But, I’d like to add that this phrase is way more fun to use than other phrases and it’s just asking to be incorrectly used.
Sure, blame the victim.
I really need to get over this bit of prescriptivism.
Begging the question is totally begging for it.