It’s back to school time, and one question is being asked in every school across the land: “How was your summer?”
To be blunt, this has been the worst summer of my life. In mid-June, I lost my brother Pat to cancer. I will mourn Pat until my last breath. He was not just a great guy, he was a terrific brother. He was my best man.
One week later, my wife and I were involved in a fairly serious car accident. Fortunately, our car was the only casualty. My broken rib has finally healed, and my wife is, at long last, out of her neck brace.
Mercifully, before these two blows landed, I had already circled August 21st on my calendar. August 21st, the wedding date chosen by my nephew and his fiancée.
I didn’t know that I needed a wedding so badly, but I did. And this is the wedding that I needed. The bride and groom looked like they came from Central Casting. Remarkably good-looking, and brimming with love. Aesthetics aside, they stood before us as the embodiment of two young persons who not only found each other, but also found the definition of love in each other.
Weddings are often reduced to a checklist of tasks, making sure that the things that can be controlled will happen as they should. This wedding, that saved my summer, checked all of the boxes without feeling like it was choreographed, although the bride and groom’s first dance did give off more than a whiff of choreography.
The extraordinarily blue skies with cotton ball clouds served as the ceiling for this rose garden wedding, and the stubborn refusal of the mercury to budge above or below eighty degrees that day only added to the sense that this was a wedding that was meant to be. This was a couple that was meant to be. Hollywood could not have painted a more perfect picture.
In short, our world is a much better place because Jamie and Margaret are united in love. And with my worst summer ever having brought me to my knees, I cannot exaggerate how restorative and inspirational it was to see love take root and blossom. I got up from my knees, thanked Jamie and Margaret silently, and hummed "All You Need Is Love."
Now, to be clear, the weight of the worst summer of my life seemed just a little lighter, not erased. That pain will linger. But the word “lighter” works just fine.
[The Beatles - All You Need Is Love]
