I am honored, and overwhelmed. Hi. I am also very much in love…. swooning in Shakespearan fashion which no man should do. I haven’t even the corset.

For those that don’t know me, you now do. I am Michael, and I am either a dear friend, or a new friend who has familial rights to sleep in our mansion whenever you visit SF. Mansion is colloquial for 1 bedroom apartment in the Inner Sunset, where we live.

There was one thing I was thrilled to do when I knew I had to speak in front of you… and that was likely sweat and get a might nervous. It’s funny, because I will prattle on with fingers on a keyboard, or possibly scratch away in a dimly lit desk space for hours…. but as soon as I actually get in front of people; my gosh this is actually real. You actually have to be accountable to all this. Hopefully this statement will absolve me from the indignation of constantly looking down in notes for my relevant commentary, than my normal, random verbosity.

The first thing I was THRILLED to talk about was where you all came from today. I knew this was going to be fun…. because we have (trust me) every walk of life and every type of person this world has to offer representing us right now. This is so cool… we have a gypsy from all over the world, currently stationed in love at a hotel in Costa Rica with a true mate. We have not one but two couples that have come from Alaska, and this wasn’t fleeing Sarah Palin. My nomadic friend Jeff, and his just birthday celebrated bride, Jessie for one. Kat and John Lars for another. Thank you guys. We have a bonafide Caribbean Doctor who produces psychobilly burlesque shows at coney island who hitchhiked here, up the coast trail, from LA. The entire east coast from Mass to Virginia is here, including Washington DC even those from lands further afield, such as Ghana. We did invite Obama, but he and Michelle had prior engagements. We added some local Coastal people in here for some flavor, but you can’t really help it when you’re true friends. Oregon, Washington…. some of the most beautiful country in the world left theirs to see us get married. That is very touching. Of course we have our home here in spades, and the San Francisco Bay Area never passes up a chance to celebrate. Oh yeah… we have LA too. Hi Joel, as well as Mark. =)

The entire state of Colorado has come out too…. it is a showing of love and support that means a lot. In fact, they are the ones that also provide some perspective, and a moment of silence for some of the people that cannot be here right now. Bubbi, Jedda, my father’s folks; and Ken, my mom’s dad, as well as her mom who wasn’t able to join us today. There are so many beyond that to recognize, as well. But there are also reasons of joy that people are absent – children abound among my friends, so we, at least, know that there isn’t any love lost in their relationships. What’s more, some of the kids are so buoyant and energetic it prohibited the parents from coming, while others were so new, so fragile, so overwhelming… there is quickly no other choice. I am speaking of Andy and Julie Howard in the latter situation, with their baby girl not a few weeks old. But there are also some Coloradans missing – which brings me to the more somber part of the evening. I know I know, the show isn’t supposed to go “blue”, But we are missing a couple friends because of recent tragedies – parts of the human moment that juxtapose an event like this with the complexity what we deal with inside the human condition. Kerry & Erin Foutz, Johhny & Kerry Lasker – we wish you our best, and the best to your families. I want to say specifically about a man I knew – Jerry Lasker – who just lost a long fight. You will be happy to know he kicked the ass of that cancer – he kicked it in IT’S ASS. Humiliated it, and it took a cheap shot. It is hard to resolve, and harder to comprehend. It’s not fair, but it begs one of the bigger concepts of what brings us here, or what’s more – what prevents us from coming. Connections…. relationships. Be it blood, spirit, soul or mind… their are connections here that are unbreakable, and through this union, there are new connections stronger than ever. I know this seems arcane, but there is a point… it’s about this union, of friends and families, lives and moments….. connections are vital, and I am thrilled that our passionate love and soul connection has led to this union of humans… people from all walks colliding together with experiences and memories and things that made them singular, all celebrating two people lucky enough to be in love.

I am going to end, in particularly familiar esoteric fashion, with something that challenges me deeply. It’s called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Look it up on the intertubes, but intrinsically it challenges everything I truly think I know. That being said, it often feels wonderful to relegate my lack of knowledge or depth of understanding of this human condition with something simple, obvious, and oft not spoken about the realities of our awareness. Carl Sagan said it in his book Contact, “there is only one thing in this universe that we can ultimately be sure of. It’s that we have each other.” Thanks to another friend not here, Emma from Victoria, I read Duncan’s “The River Why”. Gus talks about the river bending, and it’s sinewy nature seemingly asking the question “why?”. It always amused me that the question took so long to answer in the book…. the question “why?” to all of “this”. I knew it immediately. It’s because of this…. our love. It’s because of this… all of our connections, right here and now. There is no quanitifiable answer to why…. it exists within all of our hearts, minds and souls… and it is so deeply personal. I look at the hubble deep field and I may not be smart enough to answer such a big “why?”, nor am I ready to really conceive of it’s magnanimity. But I do know what life is about, for sure, with undeniable proof. It is about this moment…. every moment… and celebrating them with one another as deeply as possible. May my love for Lauren, and her love for me reverbrate and echo throughout these walls and molecules of air tonight. May it affect every single one of you forever….. life is about love. You have all helped that hypothesis to be positive this evening.

Thank you, every single last one of you. We love you, be well, love hard….. and dance.

About Uncle Fishbits

I'm.. just this guy, you know?

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