tree_and_leaf | (no subject)

Was wandering round the second hand bookshops in town today, when I came across a little book of "Readings for your Wedding" (in English).

I think they'd been chosen, in many cases, by googling 'Love', because the section suggested for 'highlighting the spiritual aspect of your marriage' started off with a bit of Dante (on the beatific vision), before to proceeding to Walt Whitman (fair enough in one sense, but it's obviously queer and the book was published pre-civil partnerships), then to 'The Good Morrow' (OK, it's about the start of a relationship you mean to be permanent and important - but it's also about waking up after your first night together, and regardless of my love for Donne, and regardless of whether or not I might have slept with my hypothetical husband before marriage, I do not want it read in a situation where assembled hordes of elderly relatives are gathered, and I don't suppose they'd particularly want to contemplate my sex life either), before (passing over the usual suspects from the Prophet) concluding, crashingly, with Herbert's "Love bade me welcome."

Wrong sacrament, guys.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

How odd! It sounds like a nice devotional reading, but not something I'd really want read at my wedding, elderly relatives and clergyman and so on being present.

I think either Google or a quick flick through the Oxford Book of English verse while actually thinking about what you were going to have for lunch may be the only explanation!