The American Dream

I'm happy that this election year dovetails so well with the wedding "theme" we established back when we got engaged in '06 (and which is also the title of this here blog). At the very least, there will be a guaranteed topic for table conversations at dinner!

Of course, "united" is probably a poor description of our country today. I think that since 1991 when it was abruptly decided that culture is a set of wars and cable news networks should be the battlefields, our political and civil society has had an unhealthy fixation on winning at any cost. The necessarily combative structures of a democracy are supposed to create good outcomes, not merely victorious ones.

That said, I have my own unhealthy fixation on winning, and there's no excluding this wedding from my competitiveness. When we reserved our caterer a couple of weeks ago, she told us that October 11 may be the biggest wedding day of 2008. So we won the race to book perhaps the most presitigious caterer in Durham! The early bird gets the worm and all that.

On the downside, it's important to remember that we are not quickly winning the fight to expand marriage equality, and none of the three viable candidates for President is going to show any leadership on that issue. Still, going ahead with a meaningful and beautiful wedding that consecrates our marriage in front of family and community? That feels a lot like winning.