Weddings

One of the more mainstream Phish songs, "Down with Disease" has a memorable verse that is currently bouncing through my head:


Down with disease
Up before the dawn
A thousand men with children outside dancing on my lawn




Although the lyrics are based on Tom Marshall's bout of mono, the performance of the song is so lighthearted that it always makes me cheerful and gets me moving.

Today I find myself up before dawn, actually well before dawn. I woke up at 3:30 am, half an hour before the alarm. Perhaps even more mystifying, it wasn't for a workout or to get to a Phish show :) Ironically, I am flying to the city where Phish played last night and will play again tonight and tomorrow night, but I don't have a ticket and I won't get to see them.

I'm heading off to Holland, Michigan for Mike's wedding. I'm not sure I've ever even been to the state of Michigan. And I've definitely never seen Mike get married before. The lucky woman, aka unfortunate victim, Sarah Hogan, has somehow managed to plan a wedding, while working a full time job, getting Mike through 93% of Western States, and saving our fish and oceans. She is truly a superstar of multiple dimensions.

Last night I received another save the date. It's been quite a while since I've attended a wedding, and I've really missed that. Weddings can be overdone, but there is something incredibly beautiful about the promise of a lifelong commitment to someone. Especially in these troubled times, where so many of my friends are recently divorced or in the middle of a divorce, where I'm even reading books about divorce.

I'd like to think there is still hope. Even with the statistics which seem to imply that our species appears to be incapable of enjoying lifelong monogamy without massive doses of money or religion to lubricate the engine. I'm a big fan of the pair, and I think that part of me isn't going to change, no matter how many failures I may have in my own personal life.

That was the call to board, and therefore I'm off. I'll watch the sun rise from 30,000 feet as I head off towards midsummer Chicago and then on to Michigan. I'm looking forward to the way this wedding will make me feel, for the hope it embodies, and the joy of a union of two like minded, young, vibrant, and perpeturally hilarious friends.