Vows

On October 12th, 2013, I married the most amazing woman on planet Earth. Below you will find the vows I read during the ceremony.

Yuriko, the Republicans in Congress might be able to shut down the government, but they'll never be able to shut down my love for you.

The federal government might need to raise its debt ceiling in order to pay its bills, but I have no need to ask such favors from creditors in order to give you my love. My love for you operates with a stunning surplus. Investors should want to invest in our love. We could, perhaps, pay for this entire wedding by selling Brophy/Beaman love bonds.

Because our love inspires such faith, sometimes people say that we are meant to be together. When I hear this, although I appreciate the sentiment, I groan at the use of the passive voice. (There is nothing passive about my love for you.) If we are meant to be together, I wonder, by whom? God? I don't know what God intends—nor have I reached that level of hubris, yet, when one pretends to know.

But what I do know is that I mean to be with you, and you mean to be with me. We are meant to be together by us. Or to put it more simply, we mean to be together. Our love exists because of choice—because we choose, every day, to love one another.

Half of that equation makes perfect sense to me. Of course I choose to love you. The intersection of our paths has been the single most transformative event in my life. It has brought me a wealth of happiness and joy that I never thought would be possible for me. Choosing to love you every day is the easiest of decisions, because the rewards of saying “Yes” to loving you are limitless, and living without your love is simply unthinkable.

The other half of that equation strikes me as nothing short of a miracle. That every day, you, a beautiful, thoughtful, caring woman—who could give your love to anyone—that every day, you choose to give your love to a strange, undersized man like me, is truly miraculous. I vow to never take that daily miracle for granted. I vow to do everything I can to make sure you never regret your wildly improbable decision to love me. And I vow, with all my heart, simply to love you in every way I know how, and should those methods fall short, I will invent new ways to love you. This I promise you—a lifetime of love, nothing less.

Amen.