Giveaway

It’s difficult coming to terms with having given my daughter away as I clearly remember having done in a loud, bold and confident voice;

Celebrant; “Who gives this woman in marriage”

Me; “I do” a phrase which was to be repeated throughout this ceremony.

All I could think was how clever was the bureaucracy that created this system that reduced the input of all the public involved into those two simple unambiguous words; “I do”. Nary a letter wasted. Thing is that just like when one slips from being 59.99726 to 60 years of age, nothing seems to have changed. At the very least such occasions deserve thunder and lightning. In this instance I wouldn’t have been satisfied with less than an additional sunrise as might be provided by an eclipse though a metamorphis into giant dueling dragons a-la one of Chinese director Yuen Wo-Ping’s creations would have satisfied.

In the absence of such phenomena I guess we have to leave it to time to convince us that some wonderful change has taken place. That Alice is no longer only a daughter but also a wife and that Jack is her husband, will someday be as obvious as it is that I am no longer 25, and I will be able to recognize the fullness of my gift. Of course I appreciate that I am not culturally obliged, as those of some developing nations are, to provide not only the gift of bride but also of substantial dowry. No doubt those father’s of the bride have a much sharper sensation of their largess along with debt collectors to remind them of it for years to come.
No I am happy with my cultures deconstructed approach to this ceremony which can be as heroically performed in a harbor side park as well as it might be in the grandest cathedral. Who cares how, or in what environment, the question is put as long as the answer remains the same, not; I might, I could, I suppose, maybe, but that impossible to confuse three letter phrase; ‘I do’

Resisting the temptation to implicate Gabby as the protagonist here, no, I doubt that there is anyone else in the world who might mistake Niado, as in Indira Niado, for ‘I do’ with a silent Nnn.. as an Nnn can seem. That’s just silly stuff that springs from my mind into your imagined mouth Gab, and now you’ve gone and spoilt the seriousness of this whole piece though that’s possibly just as well as I had no idea where it was going and you were not being much help. In my mind you will always be, not unlike the guardian variety, the underwear angel.

I’ll close now as Doc’s prescription Johnnie Walker black label seems to be having side effects like numb finger tips and if I go on I may embarrass myself or others. Eh Gab! Good night from we, um me, and looking forward to a boxingest day.

Robert