Spend enough time with
Rachel and Will, and you might forget their age. They have a level of wisdom,
that seems beyond their years. You might say they are old souls. For me, this
is particularly disconcerting, since I taught Rachel in high school! Don’t
worry, though, just ask them where they met, and you snap right back, well
conscious of their age cohort. That’s right, Jasmine’s Hookah Bar. Damn
millennial hipsters…
Seriously, though, what
really stands out about Rachel and Will, what makes me think of them as not
only old souls, but kindred spirits, is the level of self-examination they have
engaged in. Their honesty in following their minds and their hearts to where
that self-examination took them is noteworthy and commendable.
I always try to be mindful
of Alice Roosevelt’s description of her father, Teddy, of whom she said, “He
was the bride at every wedding, the corpse at every funeral”. I try to keep it
about the couple. However, one of the reasons that I admire Rachel and Will and
feel like we are kindred spirits is that I, too, went through a journey that
has many similarities to theirs. They are just a little smarter than me, since
they went through similar philosophical transformations much earlier in life
than I did! Apparently, unlike them, I’m just a little slow.
Why is this important? Many
people go through life, accumulate degrees, titles and prestige, but never
really get to know themselves. They are too busy running the rat race,
acquiring that one additional shiny object, reaching for one more brass ring.
Try to have a meaningful conversation with them, though, and there is no
“there” there. It’s all surface deep. And they keep running and running and
running.
Then, one day they hear a
voice. The Bible imagines such instances. Abraham hears a voice. Moses hears a
voice. Notably, they are 75 and 80 years old, respectively, which is fine if
you live to 175 and 120, respectively. In the world of reality, however, it’s a
little too late. In this world, you may have won the race, acquired the shiny
object, and the brass ring is firmly in your grasp. Meaning, however, has
eluded you.
The Bible imagines Abraham
and Moses using a specific single word, to signify that they understood what
the voice was calling on them to do: “Hineni”. It’s difficult to adequately
translate that single Hebrew word. In its most simple translation, it means, “I
am here.” However, the context tells us that this not simple, but simplistic.
In his haunting song, You Want It Darker,
Leonard Cohen is more accurate, in his translation: “I’m ready.”
Hearing that song, and those
words, I could not help but think of Rachel and Will. They each heard a voice,
an internal calling, and they each said, “I’m ready,” embarking on a journey to
think, contemplate and probe their truth. This journey took each of them to
some uncomfortable places. Through this, though, they each found themselves and
their meaning in life. They know themselves, deeply and thoroughly.
And, as these individual
journeys proceeded, they embarked on a journey together, trying, along with
their individual truths, to find their shared path in the world. Not
surprisingly, this shared journey, which could not be separated from their
individual journeys, was a little more complicated, and took a little longer.
They stand before you today,
having completed their individual journeys and their shared journey. They know
themselves and each other, as very few individuals and couples their age do.
Now when they say, “I’m ready,” It is a very different, much deeper, much more
mature statement.
Rachel speaks for both of
them, when she says: “I know the person I am and the person I want by my side.
The same person who stole my heart ten years ago… He is my knight in tin foil,
my gentle giant, my companion, my best friend, and so much more. Words cannot
do it justice. There’s no one else I’d want to go with on this adventure called
life… We are ready to take that final step forward in solidifying ourselves to
one another.”
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