Bit Player at a California Wedding

 

Seeing my old friends in the pew of the church after so many years brought up a quick of series of strong emotions in various directions, not all of them of the character I would have wanted to experience in the holy setting of the Divine Liturgy. I had anticipated that these turmoil would arise in me upon seeing them, but the Lord arranged for all my preliminary rehearsals of the event to be thwarted by the sacred ritual going on around us. It was a new twist of humility, one that I welcome in retrospect. 

Fortunately this initial encounter with the old familiar crowd I had once been part of was the most challenging aspect of the rest of the weekend, save for a few twinges of pain of sadness. 

The wedding, in the same church two hours later, was lovely to experience---including the ritual exchanging of crowns above the head of the bride and groom.

 After the ceremony we followed the instructions to find the home of the bride's grandparents, where the reception and dinner was to be held. It was an opulent property on the north edge of Modesto, where the land begins sloping down to the valley of the Stanislaus River. It was the kind of property that seemed to be characteristic of the "grandfathered" wealth of California---breathtaking in the garden-like property amidst tall cedars that I called "bonsai versions of Sequoias".

It would have been easy to feel jealously, or worse envy, at someone owning such a property, but I was only happy in a serene way that the bride could grow up experiencing such a place. I lacked for nothing in my own childhood, as far as sanctuaries provided by grandparents, ones that felt like opulent gardens. It felt like a victory.

For the dinner, Jessica and I were seated at the same table as all of the group of old high school friends. We were of marginal importance in the scheme of things, being unrelated old friends of the groom's father. It felt good to be marginal, to be a supporting character. I had not even met the bride, let alone any of her family, until I had seen them in church that morning.

My news clothes were very comfortable. There was much dancing on the tennis court from the D.J.. My cohort held it's own amidst the kids in the soc-hop that ensued.  

It was beautifully auspicious for the new couple, who were set to take a long honeymoon route back to New Mexico, where they are set to begin married life together while preparing for their third year of college. Rumors came to me that they were intending to have children  sooner rather than later. I hope they are true. Of course I didn't ask the groom about that, when he dropped by our table while making the rounds. He will be a great man, and great father, as his own father has been.