Deep in the Heart of Texas
First, yesterday's celebrational Tolkien entry, now with pictures! :-)
And for today, inspired by happy news of milestones from friends this past weekend and these past few weeks, a tale on similar vein, a long time in coming. The story of two good friends and what I did with the proverbial very first day of the rest of my life...
Her, I first met in person for the first time at a Social in Washington DC, a gathering of fellows of the newsgroup rec.arts.sf.written.robert-jordan organized by silmaril, that I attended while in the Capitol on activist business. Our friendship had begun much earlier, on the virtual meeting spaces of that group, much as my friendship began with well over 20% of my current Friends list.
Him -- he was literally one of my very oldest friends, and the oldest gentleman friend beyond family of the many gentlemen I've had the deep honor of friendship with in a long and happy life. Our story first began half a lifetime before and half a world away, the story told fondly in A Tale of Fifty Seasons. A close and stalwart friend; a kind and rock-steady soul; a good man, by every definition of the word.
I said as much to texas_tiger one evening years ago, during one of our many online chats. Although texas_tiger had no idea who hoya99 was at the time, aside from his appearances in my Journal, hoya99 was a man whose opinion and insight and character I trusted unconditionally. One of the very, very few people beyond family whom I trust that much. Someone who I thought texas_tiger would find very helpful to talk to, for perspective different than mine on this and that. With hoya99's kind permission, I gave texas_tiger his e-mail and his ICQ.
All I was doing was introducing a lady I cared much about to an old friend whose judgement and character I trusted like few others, who I thought could offer a listening ear and sound advice. All I had in mind was texas_tiger sounding out a trusted friend for a second opinion from an uninvolved party. I sure as heck didn't have some master plan to introduce them to each other with the intent of matchmaking. That thought honestly never even occured to me. Which just goes to show how life and fate always have a way of doing their own thing. A lot of story -- not mine to tell -- in between, and we come to a weekend in May, a year ago, now...
It was the ending of one story. The beginning of the next. Twenty years it had been since the journey first began in Once and Future Queen. Ten years it had been since I first walked into Rackham to recieve my short white coat at the beginning. Finally, on a beautiful May Friday afternoon, at the end of more than two-thirds of a lifetime of work from it's beginning in high-school AP class all-nighters, came the end. Surrounded by family and friends -- some of whom had driven a full eight hours just to be there, others there in spirit by e-mail and text message and all else -- I crossed the stage of Hill Auditorium and formally took the oath. It was the end of a journey I had chosen to begin twenty years before; and the beginning of everything else.
And early the morning of the first day of the rest of my life, I got aboard a little puddle-jumper, bound for deep in the heart of Texas.
It was an extraordinary stroke of luck that I was able to find the single airline flight which would get me from Detroit to there in time. It was by the great generosity of friends of texas_tiger's family that I was able to get from the tiny airport to the even tinier town texas_tiger's family called home -- a journey over back-country roads and beautiful rolling hills I'd never have been able to navigate by myself. Less than eighteen hours after celebrating with my family and friends on the portico of Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, I was standing before the little chapel in the rural Texas town near the ranch texas_tiger grew up on. And to hug once again old friends, now as groom and bride.
It was a tiny, intimate ceremony, filled with family and a few honored friends. texas_tiger and I had shared a great deal over many years. hoya99 and I shared much, *much* more over literally more than half a lifetime. To be one of the very select group able to share their special day was a profound and humbling honor. And reflecting on the long, long happy journey we'd all shared together, across decades and oceans and adventures beyond count... it was a happy day. It was a very happy day, indeed.
And in the merry reception afterwards, bride and groom insisted on singling me out amongst the guests for my supposed role in the whole affair. Which, as I noted above, was something that had never even crossed my mind when I had introduced them, long before. It had never been my deliberate intent or even idea to "matchmake" them or anything of the sort. The idea had never once occured to me. The only thing I did was to offer a lady friend I cared a lot about the advice of a man I deeply trusted. How they got from that beginning to a life joined as one is not my story to tell. I had always believed that she would make some man very lucky; and that he would make for some lucky lady a wonderful husband. And so here we were, that bright and sunny Saturday afternoon.
Her first dance was with her father. Her second was with her husband. And then, texas_tiger insisted her third was to be with me. She said, mischieviously, she'd always promised me one. Fortunately, silmaril and Jesse had long before kindly given me steps, in lessons taught on Maryland hardwood floors and Michigan math office carpets. I'd like to think that Jesse and silmaril -- silmaril who had helped introduce me to texas_tiger long before -- would have thought their kind lessons were put to good use. :-)
And so the happy day drew to a close, with texas_tiger quick-changed into a vivid bright red-and-white floral-print sundress and hoya99 in a smart mulberry shirt and white khaki slacks, scampering out admist ranks of celebrating family and close friends to the convertible awaiting their honeymoon, out admist the beauty of the city by the Bay. I would see them again, this time in my own new home, just a few months later. But forever I will remember that day they honored me with, a day of journeys ended and journeys begun, another milestone in a story already measured in season upon season before, and, fate willing, years and decades to go. Never in a hundred years had I ever forseen this turning of events; but it only goes to show that life has a way of telling it's own tale. And priveleged was I, to have been invited to share the day.
Journeys end in lovers meeting,
Every wise man's son doth know.
- Twelfth Night, Act II, Sc. III