While I am not at all responsible for the big picture of this ambitious and ever-evolving wedding (which they have dubbed a co-loveration because that is how they think), it does of course have an impact on the To Do list that continues to grow.
A week from tomorrow, on the summer solstice, there will be a grand celebration. Our beloved Stephen is marrying his soulmate Julia. They are quite a pair. Each one needs the other to tone down their creative impulses, but that doesn't really work.
I am taking this moment to record what I understand about what is happening right now, and in the near future.
Guests have been arriving for about a week, from around the world. The wedding couple has been organizing sleeping spaces and planning a week of activities so that everyone may participate in the unfolding series of events. There are plans, but the plans can change in a flash.
Last week we all thought there would be a tent in the big field space outside Julia and Stephen's house. This tent would house the wedding dinner and the dancing and a long night of celebrating. But as she walked around the farm, looking at the various spaces in the dusk, she found that she wanted a different venue for the evening party. So now we are back to the area where other celebrations have happened -- most recently last July when Stephen's brother Jesse married Shalini there. It is a good spot. A lovely spot. We save this spot for just this type of a special occasion. It is next to the blueberries, tucked into the middle of the farm, far from all the busy-ness. And very close to the clearing where the ceremony will happen.
No one knows yet what the ceremony will be. But we know it will be long and full of unexpected moments. Up until a few weeks ago, the two of them had not really decided that they would be legally married when the day was over. That seemed like a detail that could be dealt with later. But we convinced them that to assemble 175 of their dearest people and then get married later at a courthouse would be such a let-down for those who had come to join them in co-loveration.
Tomorrow I will go to the Fairfax County Courthouse and do the paperwork to be legally allowed to sign the documents that will make their marriage official. I am not performing the ceremony but I am going to make it real. That was my bargaining chip -- I will do the legwork if you just go get your marriage license. All right then.
At 1:00 tomorrow afternoon Stephen has a date with his dear friend Cory. They are meeting to cut bamboo, 32 long pieces (I think) of bamboo so they can construct the dodecahedron, or whatever it will be. So much of this has been years and years in the making. We planted that bamboo in 2000 and this is what it is for.
My sister Anna and her husband have been acquiring the furniture and furnishings for at least a month. Tables and dishes and chairs and silverware and buckets and linens and pots and pans and traffic cones and signage and on and on. At the end of this event, the married people will own a lot of dishes and chairs, as part of their future together, creating gatherings which will allow for transformation in the attendees, slowly but surely. It is all very vague, but it will really happen. It is already happening.
There are parts of this grand project that I have not even imagined. It will be so interesting to be a guest.
But first we have to make the food. Other people are doing a lot of cooking -- including Casey who will watch over the lambs roasting all day on Thursday. Jon will be the head chef for the wedding dinner. I am assembling ingredients and helpers. Our usual roles. It will be a tense few days around here, starting on Monday all the way to the end of Thursday. Alissa is coming on Monday and will start baking non-stop -- she is in charge of all the desserts that are not the wedding cake. Rebecca can't get here until the end of Wednesday and Benjamin arrives in the middle of Thursday.
In the meantime, there are these farms that have to keep working. That will be fascinating, to see how we co-loverate in the Green Barn, washing vegetables as fast as we can so we can get out of the way of the wedding guests who need a quick shower on Thursday afternoon. I will say more about that later, after it really comes true. Maybe we will make Wednesday be our big picking day next week, just to give ourselves a little room to maneuver.
I just canceled a conference call that was scheduled for next Wednesday evening. My priorities are finally coming into focus. Even if I am the chair of the committee, I would never be able to pay attention. What was I even thinking?
But, at this moment, all is quiet where I am. Jon is away with the girls, there is no one here but me. I need to absorb every magical moment of this calm (I am especially aware of this, as five energetic house guests just left yesterday).
And now you are all prepared for the report that will undoubtedly appear when there is a story to tell.
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