Here in the heartland of surreal America, no one's marriage seems to have been undermined. The kids appear to be doing fine too, thank you.
Here in Massachusetts, we go to weddings like everyone else. We struggle to find the car keys and matching tights, and then drive around furiously trying to find a parking spot before the ceremony begins, (parking being the REAL threat to marriage in the Boston area).
At each wedding, gay or straight, there are beautiful moments and usually some ludicrous ones, before the kids stop wriggling and realize something sacred is happening. We cry like the sentimental fools we are when we see an affirmation of our own love and commitment in someone else's loving covenant. Those tears are the only thing the kids find weird.
If anything, the gay marriages are more beautiful, more affirming of our own promises, because there is this tremulous, well, . . .audacity of hope on everyone's faces. No one is taking these vows for granted.
After the ceremony, we eat too much, drink too much, hold hands and hope in vain that we have not made fools of ourselves doing the chicken dance or the two-step (depending on the sexual orientation of the celebrants). Then we go collect our parking tickets and drive home both richer and poorer.
Someone else's civil rights never hurt a good marriage.
Or as one of my daughters wrote (none too legibly) on her first political sign ever:
"If you think marriage is good, share."
(Pretty good, huh. She came up with it while skipping along the Freedom Trail.)
Peace and hope to all from a Japanese American who knows the fragility of our civil liberties and holds them all the more dear.
P.S. If you need a little break from making history with Obama GOTV tonight, please consider making a few calls for No on 8:
http://www.noonprop8.com/...