A couple of weeks ago, my beloved and I met with our officiant for the final time before the rehearsal. We finalized the details of the ceremony, chose our vows and selected our readings. I wanted the vows to be as conventional as possible. Although I recognize that self-written vows are intended to be sweet, I usually find them trite, formulaic and awkward to observe. After speaking with Carolyn, Rich and I decided to choose fairly conventional, “pre-fabricated” vows, if you will. Love, honor and cherish … that sort of thing. We decided that we would choose our readings in order to reflect a little bit more on our personalities: We chose two Biblical readings to signify our respect for tradition and our understanding of the importance and sanctity of the promise we’ll be making, but for our last reading we chose a poem by my favorite poet, Pablo Neruda, that is definitely unconventional and a lot more intimate. It’s quite a sensual poem, so for me it’s pushing the envelope a bit (as far as I’m willing to push it in a house of worship, that is). The first, very brief reading, is from the Old Testament. Carolyn suggested that we weave it into our vows, but that’s still a work in progress. It’s from Ruth, Chapter 1, verses 16 and 17:
