A little past one o’clock on a Sunday when the clouds were clearing out from yesterday’s storm, I sat on one of my usual benches by the Bay – my usual notebook, book of poetry, and thermos of coffee by my side. Within a minute of sitting down, the bride walked from the parking lot behind me across the promenade and on to the beach. She wore a sheer top white gown with a two or three foot train. He wore a black tux with a purple bow tie. The little girls had flowers in their hair and wore simple, unadorned purple dresses. There was an officiant and three other people in attendance. The backdrop for their vows an empty beach, the deep blue Bay, a mottled sky, and the splendor of the Golden Gate Bridge. The song playing through my earbuds as they exchanged rings was Rihanna’s “Stay”:
Not really sure how to feel about it
Something in the way you move
Makes me feel like I can’t live without you
It takes me all the way
I want you to stay
Hope and beginnings, love and joy. For a few minutes on an otherwise ordinary day, this was the center of the universe. A brightly smiling couple taking a chance at making a go of this crazy life together. It was a sweet and touching moment. I might have gotten a little teary-eyed and fidgety with the overwhelming rush of emotions. When they kissed, the dozen or so people who had been passing by at that moment clapped. He shouted out. “We did it! We’re Married!” A man walking by hooted and hollered for them. The couple at the other end of the bench smiled and laughed the way we do when we’re awash in the happiness of others.
As they took a few more pictures, some in front of his jet black motorcycle parked along the promenade with a view of the bridge behind it, I thought about how lucky I was to have witnessed this. Not more than an hour before, I was sitting in my apartment not sure if I wanted to go to the beach to read or go for a run or just chill inside. How lucky to arrive just in time to catch this intimate and sacred ceremony – to feel time stop and expand, to sense and witness this bold act of two people actively choosing each other. In a world of division and cynicism, people still choose hope – and in doing so, it radiates outwards like the sun breaking through the clouds.
