orichalcum

To fall in love is easy, even to remain in it is not difficult; our human loneliness is cause enough. But is a hard quest worth making to find a comrade through whose steady presence one becomes steadily the person one desires to be.

--Anna Louise Strong

Two years ago today, I joined my life forever with another person's, in the presence of our loved ones and the water and the mountains and a beautiful sunlit sky. It seems like yesterday, it seems like eons ago. Our lives have changed in many ways; our love has grown and developed even more. My stomach still rolls over and gurgles when he walks into the room in slacks and a dark button-down shirt; I still feel like crying when he brings me Metrostar lilies, just because he loves me, and not for our anniversary, as he did last night. I still feel terrified occasionally - at the thought of losing him to a random Act of Taxi, at the thought that he might wake up and realize that he married a crazy, messed-up, lazy person and regret it, at the thought, even, that we made such a major decision so early in our lives. But he has my heart in his keeping, and I have his, and all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.


Classical Reading: Odyssey, Book VI, Homer
(Odysseus, speaking to Nausicaa) And may the gods grant thee all thy heart's desire: a husband and a home, and a mind in harmony with his may they give--a good gift, for there is nothing mightier and nobler than when husband and wife are of one heart and mind in a house, a grief to their foes, and to their friends a feast of gladness, but their own hearts know it better than anyone.


Legal Reading: Griswold v. Connecticut,.......
Context: This landmark Supreme Court case in the 1960s redefined the right of privacy and established a legal awareness of the importance of marriage.
Marriage is a coming together for better or for worse, hopefully enduring, and intimate to the degree of being sacred. It is an association that promotes a way of life, not causes; a harmony in living, not political faiths; a bilateral loyalty, not commercial or social projects. Yet it is an association for as noble a purpose as any involved in our prior decisions.


Third Reading: I Samuel 18.1-3
Context: In this passage, Jonathan, son of King Saul of Judaea and David, a young shepherd of the house of Jesse, first meet and form a covenant. Later, their relationship is tested when David antagonizes Saul.
And it came to pass, when [David] had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And Saul took him that day, and would let him go no more home to his father's house. Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul.

F18:29 But it came to pass that Saul was yet the more afraid of David; and Saul became David's enemy continually. And Saul spake to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill David. But Jonathan Saul's son delighted much in David: and Jonathan told David, saying, Saul my father seeketh to kill thee: now therefore, I pray thee, take heed to thyself until the morning, and abide in a secret place, and hide thyself: 19:3 And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where thou art, and I will commune with my father of thee; and what I see, that I will tell thee. And Saul hearkened unto the voice of Jonathan: and Saul swore, As the LORD liveth, he shall not be slain. And Jonathan called David, and Jonathan showed him all those things. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence, as in times past.
So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, Let the LORD even require it at the hand of David's enemies. And Jonathan caused David to swear again, because he loved him: for he loved him as he loved his own soul.


Fourth Reading: I Corinthians 12.4-10
Now there are many different gifts, but it is always the same Spirit. And there are many different ways of serving, but it is always the same Lord. And there are many different forms of activity, but in everybody it is the same God who is at work in them all. The particular manifestation of the Spirit granted to each one is to be used for the general good. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit. To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another the gift of different tongues and  to another the interpretation of tongues: But at work in all these is one and the same Spirit, distributing them at will to each individual.


Fifth Reading: I Corinthians 13.1-13.13
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am no more than a resounding gong, or a clashing cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all the faith so that I could move mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Love is always patient and  kind; love is never jealous; love is not conceited or boastful, does not behave itself unseemly, does not seek her own advantage, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil. Love rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;  bears all things, trusts all things, hopes all things, endures all things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then we shall see face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now remain faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.


Vows:
I wed you, knowing that you will always be my friend, my partner in life and my love. I promise and covenant to be there for and with you, in health and in sickness,  in joy and in sorrow, through good times and bad. I promise to love you,  to respect and honor you, to forgive and praise you, to defend you from harm, to comfort you in times of distress, to grow with you in mind and spirit, to always be open and honest with you, and to cherish you, now and forever.