Embrace of the Future

On Thursday, October 12, 2023, I officiated Diana and Ariel’s wedding ceremony at the Chapel at Palacios in Westlake, Texas. Here are the remarks I shared with them and their guests: 

I ask every person I marry to tell me why they want to marry the other person. It’s kind of an important question, and no one aside from me can get away with asking it. I mean, imagine telling your bestie that you have become engaged. They are supposed to say congratulations, not why. 

I love Diana and Ariel’s answers. They are short, direct, and to the point, like Israelis and Venezuelans are, and they are at the same time deep, again, as Israelis and Venezuelans are.

Diana says that being with Ariel, “feels right, it feels like home. As an immigrant it’s very hard to genuinely feel at home. With Ariel, every time I return from work, ‘together’ is just the best place. I feel peace, I feel loved.”

And Ariel says, “When I met Diana, I was in the most unexpected place in my life. Meeting her and being with her has made life make more sense. It has increased my trust in the universe, God, and the process.”

Wow. What an optimistic sense of love and hope, what a beautiful embrace of the future. Of course, this reminded me of one of the most famous poems of that other Tchernichovsky, Shaul:

“Laugh at all my dreams, my dearest; laugh, and I repeat anew

That I still believe in mankind as I still believe in you.

For my soul is not yet unsold to the golden calf of scorn

And I still believe in man and the spirit in him born.

By the passion of his spirit shall his ancient bonds be shed

Let the soul be given freedom, let the body have its bread!

Laugh, for I believe in friendship, and in one I still believe,

One whose heart shall beat with my heart and with mine rejoice and grieve. 

Let the time be dark with hatred, I believe in years beyond.

Love at last shall bind the peoples in an everlasting bond.

In that day shall my own people rooted in its soil arise,

Shake the yoke from off its shoulders and the darkness from its eyes.

Life and love and strength and action in their heart and blood shall beat

And their hopes shall be both heaven and the earth beneath their feet.

Then a new song shall be lifted to the young, the free, the brave

And the wreath to crown the singer shall be gathered from my grave.”

Diana and Ariel, thank you for embracing and sharing your love and optimism with us. May they continue to carry you into a loving marriage for many years to come.