08.22.09

I know I'm making this so much harder than what it should be. I had a blurb all written out and I managed to delete it. Bottom line is that I wanted to thank a whole bunch of peoples that made all of this possible. Looking at these pictures makes me realize how lucky we are to live where we live and love who we love. Everyone should be entitled to this kind of happiness, not just us. Ross did an amazing job capturing the day. I keep going back through the images and smiling like it's the first time I've seen them. Bradley gets a special thanks for hitting the game winner as a freshman. In his ceremonial debut, he delivered one for the ages. I do hope they all are as good as ours was, but I can't see that happening. And while I may be biased, it really was perfect. My Uncle Chuck delivered a heartfelt reading that Erica's dad had written.

“It is generally recognized that a picture need not take for its subject an apple on a plate – though some good pictures have done so – and that a sonata need not be written in C-major and two-four time – though some music has dared to.”

But –

It is generally recognized that love cannot have too complicated a design nor be too comprehended in its scope. When (if) love becomes “too complicated”, if it becomes too abstract and we suddenly have too many places to go, too many things to do and too many excuses to expound – if suddenly it is too ordinary, too similar to what it always was, we become bored. As life becomes more and more complex, love must remain free and dependent only upon one’s feelings for the other. Your true and lasting feelings cannot be dependent on age, on career, on complications of life.

There is no easy way through life, there is no convenient way to stay in love.

A life together cannot become filled by too many good times, for it is not the good times that define a life of love. Love is not what gets you through the first years – love is what gets you through the rough years. Love is what helps you grow – as a couple, as a family, as friends.

But rest assured, love will, on occasion, seemingly disappear – to be totally beyond the moment, be impossible to even ever again consider. That is when you reach back “to when” . To when you chanced to look in the eye, to hold the hand, to be held and be silent.

The ability to prosper emotionally as husband and wife, as parents and as children, and friends and as lovers – that is the continuation of love, the painting of the apple, the composing of the sonata in C-major.

Donald C. Weiss
with many thanks to Dame Rebecca West

Everyone there made it great and I could go on with thank-you's for days on end. My family, especially, could have a whole day of thanks reserved just for them. My brother delivered a great speech and I enjoyed hanging out with him for most of the day. I was proud to stand up there with my mom and dance to the song that she wanted to dance to. And everyone that made the long trip to Cincinnati. It just all made for a pretty amazing day.