Marriage

This past weekend my daughter, Shari, found her partner-for-life in Jim. There is nothing so wondrous as the intersection of two people. Tarzan meets Jane in this jungle. Given all the contingencies, the swerves, detours, pot-holes and off-ramps of intersecting paths the marriage of true minds is a miraculous event. Shakespeare said to admit no impediments. But they will come summoned or not and how they are met will be a measure of the union

The ceremony took place in the garden of the Columbia Gorge (short for gorgeous) Hotel against a backdrop of waterfall, boulders and river in a forest of evergreen. Their joining seems to me like the wedding of everything; water and dry land, families and friends, and even a coming together within each of us.

In a broad sense a marriage is a reconciliation between faith and doubt, the forces that push us outward and those that turn us inward, all the conflicting elements that make us whole. Finding a kindred soul is a willingness to yield and make room for the other with an intuitive knowing that you will be nurtured even as you extend yourself in new ways. It’s a trust in the unknown; that it will be made safe, the harboring in as well as the voyaging out.

Particularly in these times with public life polarized and wide chasms driven between people marriage as a binding force is so welcomed. When minds close around a belief system so do hearts. A certain heated vocabulary with daggers embedded generally goes with it. Enter a ceremony of love to open the petals in our greenhouse and urge tendrils across walls.

Peggy and I found a beautiful human connection with Jim’s parents though we were told they hold opposing political views. They drove five days from Buffalo. He has his road map on the table planning his return trip. Our conversation navigates the blue highways avoiding certain heavily traveled roads. Over four days we had what can be seen as our own wedding of hearts and minds with them completing the marriage weekend.