The Open Road

I will always remember the night I proposed to my husband. It was years before the Civil Partnership bill was passed. We had no legal way to cement our relationship. In a moment of clarity, I realised that meeting this man had changed the course of my life, forever. I didn't have a ring. I hadn't prepared a speech. We were on a triple seven, flying home from Kansas City. 35,000 feet beneath us, the lights of New York City sparkled.

I got down on one knee, blocking the aisle, and took his hand in mine.

We landed in London at 7:00am, made our way through customs and immigration, then home, tired but happy. It was a new day, a new chapter in our lives. That day, the world would become a new place, more than we could have imagined. It was September 11, 2001.

Earlier this year, a young friend of ours, a native New Yorker, met and fell in love with a girl. It's been a rare privilege to have witnessed their feelings for each other blossom and grow over the weeks and months. At times, I've felt like an older brother to the boy, at times a father figure. When he announced that he'd proposed and she responded yes, I couldn't have been happier.

They've asked me read at their wedding. My choice of material seems obvious to me: an excerpt from a Walt Whitman poem that we used in our own ceremony.

Song of the Open Road (Excerpt)

Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.

Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,
Strong and content I travel the open road.

The earth, that is sufficient,
I do not want the constellations any nearer,
I know they are very well where they are,
I know they suffice for those who belong to them.

Listen! I will be honest with you;
I do not offer the old smooth prizes, but offer rough new prizes;
These are the days that must happen to you:

Allons! the road is before us!
It is safe - I have tried it - my own feet have tried it well - be not detain'd!
Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the book on the shelf unopen'd!
Let the tools remain in the workshop! let the money remain unearn'd!
Let the school stand! mind not the cry of the teacher!
Let the preacher preach in his pulpit! let the lawyer plead in the court, and the judge expound the law.

I give you my hand!
I give you my love, more precious than money,
I give you myself, before preaching or law;
Will you give me yourself? will you come travel with me?
Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?