Column: Stories of Love

by Woody

My new memoir WOODEN & ME is also available here at Amazon

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Season of Love Stories

“To every thing there is a season,” Ecclesiastes 3 tells us, “and a time to every purpose under the heavens.”

For my wife and me, the time of recent has been wedding season.

1-wedding.png AMNieces’ weddings. Children of our friends’ weddings. Weddings of co-workers young enough to be our children. Our children’s friends’ weddings. Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn don’t go to as many ceremonies in “Wedding Crashers” as we have the past year.

Our own wedding was 32 years ago and there was no video made of the ceremony and the reception was a blur and quite honestly I would like a do-over.

By this I do not mean a do-again by renewing our vows in front of new friends and family we have gained since our first “I do’s” – although this, too, would be wonderful.

Rather, I would like to relive our original wedding with the same bridal party and same groomsmen and the same entire guest list. “Groundhog Day” on September 4, 1982.

Given a magical do-over, I would make a better effort to stop and smell the bouquet, so to speak, and savor more specific moments and memorize more priceless interactions from the day.

Indeed, after watching my beautiful bride walk down the aisle to meet me at the pulpit, everything else – the verse readings, the minister’s words, our vows and our first kiss as husband and wife, the giddy walk-on-air back down the aisle together, the reception line, toasts given, our first dance, even how a groomsman wound up in a swimming pool in his tux – is pretty much all lost in the fog of time.

Better than renewing our vows, it seems to me, is now going to weddings. Sitting in a church pew or nestled around a gorgeous garden spot or overlooking the ocean or a scenic country club fairway, allows one to experience the circumstance and pomp and importance of the moment much more clearly than can the two people standing front and center – and nervous and excited and overwhelmed.

Being a wedding spectator offers the chance to vicariously be the groom or bride again with the advantage of not being bowled over by the occasion. It entices you to silently renew your own vows and commitment as you watch the real couple do so.

Indeed, if you are married, it is almost impossible not to be affected watching two others join the club. The next time you are at a wedding, when the bride is saying her vows slyly take a quick peak around and notice how many married couples in attendance reach down and squeeze each other’s hands; after the big kiss, see how many little kisses among married spectators follow.

Here is something else rejuvenating about attending someone else’s wedding. Even if I happen to already know the answer, I still like to ask the blissful couple about their “meet-cute.” It is always, and I do mean always, a story they light up in retelling.

Too, listening always, and I do mean always, lightens my heart and reminds me of my own magical first encounter that led to “for better and for worse, in sickness and in health.”

Like weddings, Valentine’s Day offers a similar opportunity to be inspired by young love. If you go for a walk along the beach today, or out to a restaurant tonight, you will have no trouble picking out the couples on dates and newlyweds.

Equally heartening are the couples that appear to be newly in love or newly married, but at the same time you can just tell they have been together for a long time.

If there were a polite way to do so, I would love to interrupt them briefly and ask how they met and also for their secret to making it last. I have a hunch some of these lovebirds might mention that going to a lot of weddings helps keep their own marriage happy and fresh.

In this season of my life, that’s one thing I would say.

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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.

Wooden-&-Me-cover-mock-upCheck out my new memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece”