passion

on sunday i attended the wedding of a man i greatly admire. it was a 'nice' ceremony; mostly traditional (as far as i understand traditional weddings, which isn't very well at all. surprise!) except that we had communion during it (which was brilliant. knock out as many sacraments as you can as fast as you can. gives me more time to return to my sinful ways. though i dont know if the transubstantiation occurred. so maybe it doesn't could. also, i'm not catholic, so maybe it doesn't matter).

after the service, all the guests were invited to take part in a group picture, and then attend a reception (najwa medina (jay razzouk's aunt) catered and she made her middle eastern fare and it was soooo delicious. my goal is clear: convince all my friends to get married and have najwa take care of the food.)

none of this really matters; they're little factoids from my weekend. but i had to set the stage (and forgive me if i did a poor job. i've never been a stagehand.)

there was music, there was the bouquet toss, there was cake cutting, and there was a toast. it was all fine.

the groom is a doctor. for many years he worked as a missionary in africa, and even still, africa is his calling. one of the projects he is supporting right now is an orphanage in uganda. and for a good hour, the focus was on this mission. the bride and groom both talked about their involvement, they showed a video on the place, and also gave the microphone to the project director to talk about the work being done. (i've forgotten to mention, but the wedding invitation expressly stated that if a guest wished to make a gift for the couple, he or she should support this organization). (but there was no appeal for moneys. in no way did the event become a fundraiser. the closest thing to that was that the groom-doctor did announce that he was hoping to put together a team to go fix cleft palates, which is a major cause of social anxiety and distress (as it is seen as some sort of curse from whatever gods africa believes in. basically, kids with these sorts of deformities never leave the house.))

what a couple! this is their wedding day, and the focus is on the intimacy and devotion they share, but what a special quality it is. i'm all sorts of inspired.

[and this is love]