Everyone who joined us on the day of our wedding remembers the young man who spoke a toast that overflowed with earnest joyfulness and humor. Well that was Miles.
Miles lumbered into my world through absolute luck. His mom and I became great friends when I became a neighbor when Miles was about 7. In the ensuing years and interweavings of our lives, I became aware of his old soul. Have you ever met someone who doesn't look like they'd be a friend for life, but you know instantly they will be? That's Miles.
Miles walks the world with an open mind and is fantastically, wonderfully, irrationally fair with a limitless mindset. We laugh and tease and debate and he challenges me to defend my position no matter how absurd it is. He's a GREAT debater, you hear me on that? and so I as often as not come away from a discussion on healthcare or care for the elderly with a different perspective. No matter what, it's a great run that always, always finds its way back to this one thing, that our friendship is ageless and rare.
Having Miles accidentally become a part of our first date was a great way for me to assess how Randy would interact with those I love and how they would respond to him. All of you know that there is nothing in the world more important to me than my sons. To put it mildly, Randy and Miles hit it off and have since built a great relationship on common interests and humor. I love them together and love watching my boys with him, too, step by step, moving towards whatever it is they will mean to each other over the next 30 some odd years.
All of this has a point, and the point is that the other day Miles wrote about what it was like to be at our wedding, and so here it is, for all to enjoy.
Title: I finally wrote about the wedding!
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
I finally wrote about the wedding! In the past four or five months, I’ve attended two things that I’ve never attended before, yet I’m sure I will again: a funeral and a wedding.
I just attended the wedding a few weeks ago. What a great, great event. And there is not a hint of sarcasm in that. I can already tell I much prefer weddings to funerals. That’s rather obvious of course.
Yet, what struck me after I left the wedding was how similar weddings and funerals are. And I don’t mean to say that the wedding I went to was very morose or that the funeral I went to was very lively or anything like that. It’s just that both “events” (I’m not sure if that’s quite the word I’m looking for, but so be it) are an expression of love. At the funeral I was at, there were so many loving words spoken about my grandfather, and at the wedding, there were a lot of loving words spoken, and love was just in the air.
I once heard this guy mention how he thought laughter and crying were very closely related, and how he thinks they’re a lot closer then they are farther apart. When you think about it, you often stop crying by laughing, and many a time, laughter will lead to tears.
It’s such a rare experience to see two people so in love, like I did a few weeks go. And everyone was celebrating their love and celebrating their happiness. And there was no jealousy, no anger.
And at the funeral, to see a celebration of life, and what a wonderful life my grandfather led.
It’s great to see such love in this world, it truly is. Some might call it a shame that we can only express our love at such dramatic events. I call it a blessing. A blessing that that love is there and that we, as humans, are lucky enough to enjoy such a thing.
So even if I only get to witness such love on rare occasions, I’m happy to know that it’s there.
(Told ya.)
Miles lumbered into my world through absolute luck. His mom and I became great friends when I became a neighbor when Miles was about 7. In the ensuing years and interweavings of our lives, I became aware of his old soul. Have you ever met someone who doesn't look like they'd be a friend for life, but you know instantly they will be? That's Miles.Miles walks the world with an open mind and is fantastically, wonderfully, irrationally fair with a limitless mindset. We laugh and tease and debate and he challenges me to defend my position no matter how absurd it is. He's a GREAT debater, you hear me on that? and so I as often as not come away from a discussion on healthcare or care for the elderly with a different perspective. No matter what, it's a great run that always, always finds its way back to this one thing, that our friendship is ageless and rare.
Having Miles accidentally become a part of our first date was a great way for me to assess how Randy would interact with those I love and how they would respond to him. All of you know that there is nothing in the world more important to me than my sons. To put it mildly, Randy and Miles hit it off and have since built a great relationship on common interests and humor. I love them together and love watching my boys with him, too, step by step, moving towards whatever it is they will mean to each other over the next 30 some odd years.
All of this has a point, and the point is that the other day Miles wrote about what it was like to be at our wedding, and so here it is, for all to enjoy.
Title: I finally wrote about the wedding!
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
I finally wrote about the wedding! In the past four or five months, I’ve attended two things that I’ve never attended before, yet I’m sure I will again: a funeral and a wedding.
I just attended the wedding a few weeks ago. What a great, great event. And there is not a hint of sarcasm in that. I can already tell I much prefer weddings to funerals. That’s rather obvious of course.
Yet, what struck me after I left the wedding was how similar weddings and funerals are. And I don’t mean to say that the wedding I went to was very morose or that the funeral I went to was very lively or anything like that. It’s just that both “events” (I’m not sure if that’s quite the word I’m looking for, but so be it) are an expression of love. At the funeral I was at, there were so many loving words spoken about my grandfather, and at the wedding, there were a lot of loving words spoken, and love was just in the air.
I once heard this guy mention how he thought laughter and crying were very closely related, and how he thinks they’re a lot closer then they are farther apart. When you think about it, you often stop crying by laughing, and many a time, laughter will lead to tears.
It’s such a rare experience to see two people so in love, like I did a few weeks go. And everyone was celebrating their love and celebrating their happiness. And there was no jealousy, no anger.
And at the funeral, to see a celebration of life, and what a wonderful life my grandfather led.
It’s great to see such love in this world, it truly is. Some might call it a shame that we can only express our love at such dramatic events. I call it a blessing. A blessing that that love is there and that we, as humans, are lucky enough to enjoy such a thing.
So even if I only get to witness such love on rare occasions, I’m happy to know that it’s there.
(Told ya.)
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