Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Artemis and Esteban wedding speech

To me, adventure is a setting out, with a degree of intentionality, to encounter the unknown and the inexplicable. A good adventure, like a marriage, has a good deal of mystery in the future, but most importantly, the guarantee of interesting things along the way.

That crystallization of intention, that first step along the adventurous path, is the one that requires the most courage. Today, you leave behind the comfort of the familiar and well trod paths, and set out into the wilds of matrimony.

Some adventures are solo journeys, which can present opportunities for self discovery. Other adventures are more familiar exercises. A close friend, or traveling companion, is a piece of home with whom you can contextualize your dramatic shared experience.

Obviously, one's choice of companion is critical. If you are very lucky, you may meet in your one lifetime, a person with whom you can produce that vanishingly rare hybrid adventure. One where you can self actualize, though without crushing loneliness. One where you can share the full spectrum of life's adventures, but without stifling over-familiarity.

Artemis and Esteban, I have known you both since my first days on this continent, more than five years ago. That you were meant to be together was obvious to most of us, even then. It gives me infinite pleasure to celebrate with you this phase change, this sublimation, of the inevitable.