<\/p>\n
This past weekend I had the <\/p>\n In matters of love, whether It got me to thinking about the Certainly infatuation is fleeting, <\/span>The problems of marrying for love are different. <\/span>Mostly, we are not all that good at it, despite love’s being <\/span>Even marriages made for love where the One of this weekend’s wedding’s most <\/span>I loved that ritual, integrating as it The ultimate futility of the The traditionalists’ worry that Perhaps in this portion of life we <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending a wedding that wonderfully integrated Pagan and more traditional motifs, held within a redwood grove, not far from where I live. The ceremony was a subtle interweaving of magickal and shamanic principles within a framework that the bride and groom’s more traditional family members seemed to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pagan-culture"],"yoast_head":"\n
\npleasure of attending a wedding that wonderfully integrated Pagan and more
\ntraditional motifs, held within a redwood grove, not far from where I
\nlive. <\/span>The ceremony was a subtle
\ninterweaving of magickal and shamanic principles within a framework that the
\nbride and groom’s more traditional family members seemed to find very
\nenjoyable. <\/span>As I did.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nsomeone is Pagan or Christian, or secular or Muslim is pretty much
\nirrelevant. <\/span>They all can come
\ntogether to celebrate its triumph and its promise in that field where it most
\nfully manifests: the relation of one loving being to another. There might well have been vast religious and political differences among the guests, but it did not matter in the celebration of something more basic, more primordial.<\/p>\n
\nchanging nature of marriage within our society. <\/span>At one time marriage was for many reasons other than love:
\neconomic well-being, raising a family to provide for old age and to further the
\nline, and for the powerful, cementing political alliances. <\/span>Marriage for love was even suspect
\nbecause love is fleeting, or so makes for a fragile union.<\/p>\n
\nwhich is why a rapid marriage, made under its influence, often falls apart as
\nboth partners increasingly see their partners for who they are rather than as
\nfantasies. The same holds for chemistry. Chemistry is certainly a part of a relationship, particularly early on, but it is not sufficient, and love need not depend on it. The pure energy part of relationships fades over time, I think, but the love need not.<\/span><\/p>\n
\na quality that in at least some of its forms is uniquely human. <\/span>But few are utter failures at it
\neither, and some people get better with practice. Hopefully this holds for us all.<\/span><\/p>\n
\npartners ultimately drift away, and ultimately divorce, still can end harmoniously, and
\nwith affection on both sides. <\/span>I’ve
\nseen it happen repeatedly. <\/span>These
\nmarriages are not complete failures by any means.<\/p>\n
\nwonderful elements, one that was new to me, was a time for married guests to
\naddress the bride and groom with insights from their own marriages as to how to
\nmake them last. <\/span>After they had
\ndone so, they watered a small tree, an oak, blessing it. <\/span>That tree would later be planted where the couple lived. <\/span><\/p>\n
\ndid the human realm with that of nature, and the many kinds of flourishing that
\nlife makes possible. <\/span><\/p>\n
\ncurrent conniptions by so-called defenders of “traditional marriage” came clear
\nto me during this ceremony. <\/span>This wedding’s center of gravity was love, not economics, not family, and certainly not
\npolitics. <\/span>But love is something
\nthat is open ended. <\/span>The movement
\ntowards gay men and women being able to marry one another is the ultimate
\noutcome of this logic. <\/span>And more
\npower to them. This is why the childless Limabugh and others are forced to argue that marriage exists to raise children, ignoring their own behavior in the process.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nits logic leads to marrying animals shows them for their complete inability to
\nunderstand mature human love. <\/span>In a
\nway, that so many could make such a claim suggests how far they themselves are
\nfrom understanding or perhaps experiencing love for another. <\/span>They are representatives of a fading
\npast where marriage was made for reasons other than love, and that so few
\nactually walk their talk in their personal lives suggests that day is
\ndone. <\/span>The issue is whether we can
\ngrow into a new and finer way of relating, or not. <\/span><\/p>\n
\nas a people are actually making progress.
\n<\/span>This weekend it was easy to think so. <\/span><\/p>\n