a walk down the aisle/a walk across a stream

where have i been for three weeks? there's a time and a place for everything and it is for another time that i describe the people and places i experienced - now is the time to write..

... once upon a time i was pushing a stroller in suburbia. a chubby little girl comforted by a finger in her mouth would silently slide down eventually causing me to stop and readjust her in that seat until the next few yards when the process would be repeated and the eyes of beginners mind would see a man experiencing a moment of sublime serenity.

time passed and she was old enough to remind me of a story i once told her about two buddhist monks traveling through a village. they came upon a stream swollen above it's banks from the spring rain preventing a young woman from crossing. one monk picked her up in his arms and carried her across the water to the other side. when the monks continued their journey one monk asked the other monk why he picked up the young woman since they both took a vow of celibacy. the other monk replied that he had put her down after they crossed the stream and he then observed that it was the monk who asked that still carried her in his question.

the next thing i knew i was holding the arm of a beautiful young woman dressed in white. as i walked her down a carpeted path i remembered the day she was born and i watched fast forward glimpses of life's moments which we shared over the years. we stopped one step away from the alter on which stood a dream come true for an incurable romantic.

i returned to my seat. the rest was a blurr swimming in a pool of tears. we went through a lot together. we went through a lot apart. cassie, a bridesmaid who had it all together said to keep my eyes on her so i wouldn't experience an emotional melt down. good advise for all but the few tears that managed to escape only to dissolve on a rented tux.

it wasn't until i danced with my daughter in that cool tampa breeze that i realized one moment i was walking my daughter down the aisle and the next moment i was walking down that same aisle with nothing but all those memories. and after stevie wonder sang "stay gold" our dance had ended as i put her down on the other side of the stream she remained in my heart as daddy's little girl.

and the thought occurred to me that perhaps it was time to start a new tradition at weddings. one where after the father/daughter dance a soft light should focus on the bride, another soft light should follow her husband on his way to meet her on the dance floor while the father walks in the dim lighting towards the kitchen where he is handed a take out meal, and a taxi takes him to his hotel room where he can be alone with his memories so he can remember to let them go.

tonight while i remember where i was just three weeks ago i can only imagine the mental anguish and emotional pain that terri schiavo's father must be experiencing as his "daddy's little girl" slips away from this lifetime. a father who walked his daughter down the aisle will soon lose her to that fate which awaits us all deserves only our compassion and not our moral judgments.

human compassion can best be offered by letting the schindlers and the schiavos take a taxi to that place where they can remember and reflect in private and mourn the loss of a loved one.
and true human compassion would extend even to those who have exploited human life for political gain and to the media which continues to ignore such shameless hypocrisy of those who value human life with an empty rhetoric no longer capable of concealing the death and destruction their deeds at home and abroad.

if you believe the truth shall set you free by now you should know that you will not find truth in the words of the preachers, the politicians, and the press. if you believe gandhi's observation that there is no higher form of god than truth. if you believe that all men are created in god's image. the inescapable conclusion seems to be that the truth is in each one of us and not in any form of government that seeks to control one's existence from cradle to grave.