A traditionalist wedding speech

A reader writes:

For evidence of how powerfully you reframe things, I enclose the text of a speech I heard given by the groom, a friend of mine, at his wedding performed near Paris recently, which I’m sending along with his permission. I am sure the themes from literature and most especially your own writings will be apparent.

Why get married? Why are we gathered here?

We’ve had a chance over the past few days to engage in a little remembrance of the times past, and to glimpse into the future. And now here we all are, in this wonderful setting, right off the road where Patton and the Third Army marched up to Paris 62 years ago. An even more important event happened here though, that changed the path of history utterly. It was just 50 miles down the Loire, in 732, when Muslim cavalry were beaten back from the heart of Europe by Charles Martel and his heavily outnumbered Frankish infantry. So it’s a fine place to reflect on purpose, and sacrifice, and prospects for the future. We suffer, in all our respective homelands, from a great mental sickness, a great sin. But as Tennyson wrote, “Though much is taken, much abides.”

Marriage is an assertion of that abiding stake in the future, and also that there is a greater meaning, a transcendence, to our lives. We must take courage from that—to hope, to love, to put our trust in life. This marriage is a statement of belief that in a time of great destruction, we can still create things that endure. That we are not merely atoms seeking our own satisfaction, but the building blocks of something better, and more lasting. And I count myself as supremely lucky to have as a companion in this the best person I have ever known. {Bride’s name}, my love and thanks forever for saying Yes.

LA replies:

Your friend’s speech is fantastic. The way he connects the larger themes of traditionalism and Western Christian civilization with his own wedding is really beautiful. I am honored if anything I may have said had anything to do with his making such a beautiful statement.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 30, 2006 11:50 PM | Send