My Wedding Remarks for my Son

As promised here are my remarks while fresh in my mind.

"I was asked to make some comments on David's formative years. I have i) some remarks; ii) a poem, and iii) a story. Don't worry, none of them is more than 1 page long.

i) Carrie and David, as we prepare for your wedding, the person whom I think would cherish this moment most is David's grandmother, Clare.

Clare loved David and believed in him in a way that I understand better as time has gone by.

She believed in David's goodness, and his struggles and his successes.

She believed in his capacity to open his heart with complete vulnerability to another and be the guardian of her solitude.

She would see Carrie at the gift made possible by that vulnerability and be happy for this day.
 

ii) A poem by Juan Ramon Jimenez:

To the bridge of love,
old stone between high cliffs,
----eternal meeting- place, red dusk--,

I come with my heart.

----My beloved is only water,
which is always flowing, and doesn't deceive,
which is always flowing, and doesn't change,
which is always flowing, and doesn't end.
 

iii) I prided myself in being measured and careful in my remarks and actions when raising David. However, one day both David and I came home from a trip and got in my car at the airport. I had been having a number of mechanical problems with the car and was at the end of my patience. When the car didn't start, I lost it and began kicking dents in the car all down the driver's side. David ran around the car and asked if he could kick the car also. I said knock yourself out, whereby he started kicking dents in the car on the passenger's side. This is the event that David's remembers above all others growing up. Oh, well perhaps it taught him that you could find humor in adversity?"