Good morning from New York City. What’s on my mind this morning in a big way is love, and in particular celebrating love. My dear friend Eric is marrying Diego out on the North Fork of Long Island today. I feel so much joy I know I’m going to cry.
It has me thinking about the beautiful memories I have of my own wedding. I married Marco Botton in 1988 in a tiny town outside of Milan. Back in those days, everybody was pretty much forced to go on vacation in August, so we chose September 2nd for our wedding because requiring them to take an extra day of vacation meant that they really wanted to be at our wedding. Now when we chose that date, I wasn’t thinking about my parents who at the time were running our family-owned stores in the Westgate entrance to Yellowstone Park.
That was high tourism season and they decided not to come, until one day I called home. I said, Dad, someone’s got to be here. He sent my mother. It was so beautiful because I was always much closer with my father and her coming to walk me down the aisle in a very traditional Italian wedding was a turning point in our relationship. It was very unusual for a woman to walk a woman down the aisle. My mother and I look very much alike, and the Italians just loved it. It was a very beautiful day. We got married in a tiny town. We had the horse and buggy picking us up at the restaurant and lodge we were staying at and they were taking us through the town to the chape, and all of the locals came outside of their doors and were clapping as we went by.
It was funny that I had ‘failed’ to tell my mother about an Italian tradition. The guests wait outside of the chapel for the bride to arrive. The chapel was up a little hill, and the horses had to start galloping to get us up the hill, and we had like a hundred people standing outside the chapel clapping and my mother started freaking out. She said what do we do? I’m laughing because it was so sweet and I was nervous myself. I was the bride! My mother was holding my hand very tightly because she was so nervous. It was such a beautiful memory that we made.
Another beautiful memory I have of my wedding is that ….Well let me back track. I got married in a Catholic Church, and especially back in those days there was no participation of the bride and groom beyond deciding which verses from the Bible would be read. Side note: I got married in 1988. I wanted to read from the book The Poet by Kahlil Gibran, and the priest said no. I remember I wrote a letter to the priest, and I addressed the traditions in our country and how meaningful and important it was for me and Marco to participate in the design of our own celebration. He conceded and we gave out these scrolls as people walked into the church and I think we read three poems from the prophet, both in Italian and English. The Italians had never experienced a wedding like ours. It was really beautiful.
I know that for some people marriage is a holy sacrament. Speaking for myself, I personally greatly value celebration and the power of ceremony, and the beautiful reminder that everybody gets when you bear witness to two people who come together to declare their love.
So, I thought I’d end today with the most important piece I read at my wedding. From Kahil Gibran ‘The Prophet’ on marriage. I think many of you know it, but I think it’s always a beautiful thing to hear.
