Marriage, defiance and hope

We took a few days off to visit friends in Vermont last Friday and then to our niece Amanda Patterson’s wedding to Ben Kendall at the Common Ground Center in Starksboro, VT. Congratulations Amanda and Ben. Many happy years ahead.

During the ceremony, we had the opportunity for silent reflection. It occurred to me then that, in a strange way, marriage is this incredibly defiant act. Defiant? you ask? Why that word.

Without much effort, we can see only problems and turmoil in the future. Global climate change. Ongoing genocide. Torture condoned in our own country. State budgets in crisis, with dramatic budget cuts on the most vulnerable of our citizens. What is an ordinary person to do?

Amanda and Ben, both school teachers, have decided not to give in to hopelessness. Their marriage was a celebration of life, of possibility, of belief in a future, grounded in love, life, and hope.

So our quote today is from Pearl S. Buck:

To eat bread without hope is still slowly to starve to death.

Manga! With hope

Gayle