So many of my couples are on their third, fourth, or even fifth wedding plan.
The couple I am marrying today had originally booked me and The Elopement Collective for the Amalfi Coast.
When we all realised that Italy 2020 wasn’t happening, we kept on hearing talk of a New Zealand travel bubble so we planned for a September elopement in Queenstown.
Then when that bubble was never realised, and Jetstar cancelled our flights, we brought it closer to home, and planned to elope in the Blue Mountains. Then NSW was cut off.
So this afternoon in good ol’ Queensland, in the Sunshine Coast hinterland they’ll finally get married.
I’ve got similar stories for so many people, with so many emails, so many text messages and phone calls.
The interesting part is that they’re not overly sexy stories, nor are they terribly sad stories, I can imagine some people thinking “Wah wahh, you can’t get married in Amalfi”, but these are real stories out of 2020. Between the bushfires, the pandemic, the travel cancellations, the lockdowns, the people who have shut down their businesses - some for good - and those who are out of work, hold a heavy trove of stories. Britt and I are supposed to be in California today getting ready for an elopement in Yosemite.
It’s a weird old year.
Are we living at the ‘hinge of history’?
What makes our time hingey is that we have created threats that our ancestors never had to face, such as nuclear war or engineered killer pathogens. Meanwhile, we are doing so little to prevent these civilisation-ending events.
Conundrum: a confusing and difficult problem
Today is March 210th, 2020.
Bellicose: demonstrating aggression and willingness to fight
We live in the age of general. Where the average is enough.
Where we make great arguments over Brand A versus Brand B, dismissing the million shades of gray between them.
Where we call people and politicians left and right, like there really are only two types of people.
Where conversation about nuanced ideas, be it faith, politics, authors, ideas, medicine, or family, are dismissed if they aren’t your own beliefs.
I long for the age of nuance.
For a time where we could just chat.
In the literature underpinning the Christian tradition, the main character of the stories, asks 307 questions. He is asked 183, and he directly answers three.
I wonder what that means?
Hi, I’m Josh.
I’m a marriage celebrant.
I believe that the best part of your wedding should be your ceremony, and I work my ass off to make one that fits like a glove.
I think that if you had no arbour, cake, flowers, cars, photos, seats, decorations, suits, or white wedding uniforms/dresses, that it’s still an epic day because you are loved. Everything else is just sweet sweet sugar on top.
I think personal vows are powerful, and personalised dressing robes are cool.
I fly a drone (DJI Mavic 2 Pro) and I like making photos of things that aren’t people. I like 90s pop and alt rock and 2000’s Foo Fighters.
I’ve got a 23 month old daughter named Luna, another little girl here in February, and every day of mine is brighter because of Britt, my wife. She’s the brain behind the The Elopement Collective!
We live at Palm Beach on the Gold Coast, and if there’s not a pandemic I normally travel the globe creating epic marriage ceremonies.
I’d love to make yours!
#celebrant #celebrantinstitute
iPadOS 14 would be one of the more disappointing released of iPadOS/iOS for iPad.
No App Library, and no widgets outside of the widget area is an honest disappointment everytime I pick up my iPad now.
I’d bet/hope that the early 2021 release changes that.
New tree mulch from this upstart author/uncle, @markrwriter
Did you know there’s an Australian journalist on the 16th day of his US extradition court case in England at the moment?
You probably wouldn’t because it’s not being reported on, and it’s being algorithmicly pushed down online.
What a time to be alive.
Relax, just do it
Anyone else have an issue with the idea that we as a people struggle to do the right thing in a pandemic unless our civil liberties are severely restricted by legislators?
The idea that collectively we struggle to make good decisions for the community we live in without a bunch of rules written down on stone tablets, is getting a bit old.
But maybe that’s the only way we can succeed?
Did you know the Apple Watch comes preloaded with the last time and date that a free U2 album would’ve been cool instead of a meme.
It’s Intermational Talk Like A Pirate Day so make sure when you visit a store, restaurant, cafe, or airport today you talk like a pirate and casually drop that you’ve been sailing through Victorian waters this last fortnight.
My hobby is to comment “booo” on anti-progress boomers in local Facebook groups.
I’m clearly going to Bunnings too much if I’m getting photos of Luna on the same date sitting in a Bunnings trolley.
She thinks we’re playing, I think we’re training, we’re a great team.
I’m worried that the world doesn’t know how much I really don’t want my little black pocket computer to randomly start vibrating and making sounds because someone’s decided how I should spend the next five minutes of my life.