My Reading for My Brother's Wedding

For their wedding, my brother and his wife-to-be asked me to do a reading as part of the ceremony. Brice met Lynette right before graduating from Dudley High School in 1992, and they have been dating ever since. This Saturday, they finally got married. These are the words I chose to use:

It was slightly less than four score and seven years ago when Brother Brice and Sister Lynette first met. That was then, and this is now. 1992 is now 2007, and the present time is the perfect time for Brice and Lynette, together, to take their next step forward.

Mere minutes from now, these two individuals who have brought us all together here in Savannah's Forsyth Park will take their commitment to one another to an even higher level than has already existed these past fifteen years.

Like you, I love, respect, admire, and enjoy Brice and Lynette. They are both good and decent human beings, and we are lucky to know them and have them in our lives, just as they are fortunate to have one another.

It is a beautiful, special thing in life when the right man and the right woman, against the odds, discover one another. As right as Brice and Lynette are for one another, there's nothing more appropriate than what we are about to witness. In some relationships, there may be doubts and uncertainties about how well suited two people ultimately are for one another. With Brice and Lynette, no such question marks exist.

Brice and Lynette have already shared more positive moments, better conversations, and greater laughs than some couples manage in a lifetime. Lives best lived are full of diverse experiences, and together, Brice and Lynette have already sought to explore and discover more of the world than they've already known. Now, they're only making plans to keep up such an approach for the rest of their lives.

I have very limited advice for this happy couple because their wisdom in such matters far exceeds mine. They've been my role models, two people I look up to, not least of all because of how good they are to and for one another. I only hope and pray they continue their best practices toward one another, constantly seeking to take their relationship to even higher, mo' better levels. That describes their approach these past fifteen years, and may that remain true every day and every year for the rest of their lives together. Anything less is unacceptable, and fortunately, they both already know and understand that.

I found and would like to share with each of you here today a poem by Julia Alvarez titled "Love Portions":

[It is illegal to reprint the words to Ms. Alvarez's poem on the internet, but those words are what I read at this point in my reading.]

Brice and Lynette, may the scales between you ultimately remain balanced, and may we always see you, together, forever, laughing in the Purple Rain.