the wedding ceremony

the wedding took place in a small church outside of Malmö. it was Greek orthodox and no one on the Danish side (including the groom) understood a word of it. the Greeks had kindly printed an explanation of what was going on but it didn't really help.

mostly, the priest spoke a lot, the guests stood most of the time with short periods of sitting down, then the couple walked around the altar 3 times, followed by the best men holding wreaths over the couple's heads, which was pretty hilarious as they were also trying not to step on the long train. the best part was the end, when the priest launched into a long speech that was directed at us, the audience. the Danish side had no clue what he was saying but he was very passionate about it and, being a frail old man of 86 with a few missing teeth, this made it all very funny. 

i can't remember if there was a part where they had to say 'i do' but the groom's mother seemed slightly peeved that there was no part about someone being able to voice their concern over the marriage. i'm not sure whether this was an opinion on Orthodox weddings in general or this one in particular. let's just hope it was the former.

gay marriage 2

the law has been voted: gay marriage is on the books. about time, too, as far as i'm concerned. i mean, it has been legal in Spain, a very catholic country, since 2005! 

and yet, the anti-gay marriage demonstrators are not standing down. they're still demonstrating, demanding that the president overturns the law. give it up! while i fully support the right to demonstrate for what one believes in, and understand they clearly think this is really wrong, this doesn't actually put anyone at risk - no one will be arrested or killed for this. this is not the worst idea in the world. get a life.

overstatement

the news opened with a frightening line this evening: 'how many people will be contaminated?' it sounded like an epidemic of some sort was on the way. the following sentence was 'two people have now been infected'. two. not even the start of anything really. no exaggeration intended, i'm sure.

the invitation

N. called the other night. he explained they'd finally set a date for the wedding. the 25 May. could i come? the 25th? as in, in 4 weeks? yes. bit of a short warning, coming from abroad. after thinking about it for a couple of days and looking at the flight prices, i decided to go. 

gay marriage

i don't understand. it's 2013. this is France. and yet there are still people opposed to gay marriage. i don't get it. 

the worst is how they say it. something on the lines of: we're not homophobic, really, we're not. but marriage is and always has been an act of love between a man and a woman. if gay people want to get married, fine, but it's got to be called something else.

come again?

and then there's the whole thing about how a real family can only be one with a father and a mother. it's got to be. otherwise the kids will be traumatised. 

methinks the kids will be more traumatised by the fact that some people keep going on about the fact that it's weird than by having two loving parents. seriously. 

and to think i'd always been quite proud to live in France...