The Bride Unites Us

I witnessed a beautiful thing at the rehearsal dinner for my sister's wedding. The group was the usual mixture of figures from various eras in the lives of the bride and groom - folks from childhood, college, work - with many of us complete strangers to each other. At the very first "clink-clink-clink" of the glasses that called for the couple to kiss, my sister instead turned to her Maid of Honor, held out her arms, said "Dottie!" and gave her a kiss. She then moved to the Best Man, said "Tony!" and gave him a kiss. She proceeded around the entire room, calling every one of us by name, hugging us and giving us each a kiss in turn, until she completed the circuit and made it back to her groom.

It was so mesmerizing to watch her manner of taking a random assortment of people, and magically turning it into an us.