Goin' to the chapel and we're gonna get married and...

Now for something different... some time has passed since the occasion described below, and my writing of it, but I just thought in place of my usual diatribes, I'd post it. Get over it.


Setting aside my usual snide remarks about the godless socialists around me, I would like to say that my heart is filled with nothing but love after this weekend. What's that you say? "Gee, Mr. Good Ol' Boy- how can you take time from slaying the anti-capitalist dragons to regale us with tales of love? The walls of ignorance are closing in about us, and you are all starry-eyed in love?"

Yes, dear child, its true. Come, sit on my knee and let me tell you what happened this weekend past. You see, the Good Ol' Boy got himself RE-married this weekend to the fair Red One. As a condition of her continuing journey back to being a Catholic in good standing, Red One had to have her marriage blessed in the Catholic Church. Since that existing marriage was to me, I was invited. Not being a Papist myself, I found the idea intriguing.

We had attended several sessions with the good Father Braun at St Mike's, to look into whether we may be compatible as a couple. Turned out we were, Red having had 31 + years to knock the rough edges off me. We were pleased he found us to be so. As was the case the first time around, it was slated to happen, with or without dissenters. Father Gerard was thought to be a good sort of fellow, moreso ever after his findings.

Come the Saturday of the blessed union, we found ourselves gathered with select friends and family at St. Mike's. We exchanged vows, and the normally gruff visage of yours truly had to give pause partway through to compose himself. Sneaking a quick kiss from Red fortified my constitution enough to get through the vows, while the brother-in-law who was the groomsman understood me to be only pausing to burp.

What memories remain of the original ceremony 29 odd years ago do not include choking up in that fashion. I have no doubt that at that tender age and period of inattention I failed to completely comprehend the daunting task before me at that time. In fact, as I contemplate the outright shit-headedness I displayed to all the world in those days, I doubt I had really any idea what I was getting into. How this can work I have scarcely any idea, save through the Grace of God.

We can never know what the future holds, and that is a good thing, as I am convinced we would run away screaming, or hide under the bed in the face of some of it. To know the tender moments of love, together with your betrothed, or holding the child that is the result of that love is a fine thing, and would draw one in. But to know the other, soul-wrenching parts in advance would dissuade all but the most stalwart. Or foolhardy.

Of course, we did not know that. We knew only that marriage was the course of action, the details to be settled upon later. That it has worked out as well and as long as it has is a testimony to God's love, and, well, to some degree, to our lust for each other. At this point it could be imagined that our child would put her finger in her throat and make gagging sounds. I smile.

It has been a wonderful journey Red and I have made. I persist in my insistence that we met in a sandbox or some equivalent mechanism, when my sister Patricia and her aunt Mary Veronica were chumming around with us in tow. As I encountered her through the intervening years of grade school, I found myself wondering who would ever marry such a homely little girl. I know I will suffer for that last sentence, but I say it in love. Who indeed. Who knew that collection of big googly eyes, gangly limbs, and blond hair could become such a thing of beauty?

I hope that Father Gerard's blessing of "thirty more years" was noted at the highest levels. I would leave this mortal life willingly should I have to, only with the assurance I will be re-united with this girl some day. Of her final destination I am certain, of mine I can only hope, so I will make do with that. She certainly is my better half, and I will love her forever.

"I do."