What A Weekend!

I went to a wedding over the weekend.  In the course of my lifetime I have been to many weddings, but this one was special.  One of my sons got married!

It was a terrific weekend and in the whole scheme of things it was one of the better times I have had in a long time.  The rehearsal, the rehearsal dinner, golf in the morning, and a beautiful lakeside wedding followed by a very entertaining reception at an extraordinary venue made it a terrific weekend. It was a lovely wedding.

Not being much of a dancer, much to my wife’s chagrin,  gave me plenty of opportunity to people watch and to be amazed by the people who had gathered to help Adam and Julie celebrate their very special day.  I chatted with people I have not seen in a while, and had the chance to meet some new people who are part of the couple’s life together in Boston.  I am fortunate to have such a great friends.

High school friends, co-workers, college friends, and family were all represented at the wedding festival and this multi-faceted gathering of people who came to celebrate with the bride and groom were extraordinary.  I was amazed by the amount of love that was in that room. Each person came with love in their heart for the bride and groom. 

People told funny stories, laughter could be heard throughout the room, and there were hugs all around.  It was obvious to me that Adam and Julie have an amazing web of love that surrounds them as they begin this new and exciting journey.  The friends that gathered all seemed to one important thing is common…..they all loved Julie and Adam.

I am by nature a very emotional person, and I have to admit that I shed my share of tears.  They were tears of great joy and deep and abiding love for my boy and his new wife.  Julie is an extraordinary young woman who complements Adam very well.  They make an amazing couple when you add their gifts and talents up and add the title of husband and wife.  Adam is a terrific young man who has traveled far and wide in search of the perfect mate.  Their coming together is a story in itself and yet it is not as important as what they have already created as a couple.  They make me very proud and I get the chance to love them both as a couple from this point forward.

I am very thankful for all the people who came a great distance to be a part of the wedding experience!  It is difficult to travel so far and yet people came from far and wide to be a part of Adam and Julie’s very special day.  It says a lot to me about the amount of love that they have spread wherever they have been!  The days that come next will be filled with more of the same I am quite sure. 

I had a great time and I am thankful for what I have been given.  A new daughter and a grown up son who loves his wife more than anything.  

Seals Rock!

Believe it or not,  I find that the most difficult think about blogging is deciding what the heck to write about.  For the past few weeks I have agonized about what I wanted to commit to the world wide web, but came up blank.  It is so much easier to bitch and complain about life, friends, the cost of gas or the incompetence of politicians at every level of government.  I really have aspired to write about uplifting things and today is one of those moments……

Osama Bin Laden is dead! The world is now a better place to live.  Justice has been served for the thousands of people who have died at the hands of this man’s organization.  Hiding is plain sight always seems like a good plan, but in this case it served our purposes perfectly.  He was right where we needed him to be and our mission was a terrific success!   It is my hope that this will bring at least some sense of justice and closure to those families who were impacted by this crazy man’s attempts to destroy the world.  What happened that fateful day in September will NEVER be forgotten, nor will the people who lost their lives at the hands of a madman’s henchmen!

I would like to dedicate this blog to the men and women of our armed forces who garnered the necessary intelligence to get the ball rolling, practice how they were going to take the mansion down, and the carrying out the mission in the dead of night, killing the bad guys while not sustaining even a single casualty.  My admiration for all the people, from the President on down who made this happen is great, and I am thankful that the mission to find and destroy Bin Laden did not end with a change in the national leadership.  It gives me great comfort knowing that there are people out there, who have fought for our nation in the past and are continuing to fight for our nation in the present in the name to democracy and freedom.  Commanders in Chief, military leaders and Seals on the ground I thank you for your dedication to the task of finding and killing a very bad man. 

The US has its issues.  Being who we are I can only guess that as some issues are resolved that new ones will arise.  Our commitment to free speech will allow for all of us to speak our minds about where we stand and before you know it we will find a solution, politics not withstanding.   Soldiers allow for this to happen.  Always have and always will. 

Today is a day for all Americans to rejoice in the system that we have created over time and to rejoice yet again for all the fighting men and women who put their lives on the line under very difficult circumstances to guarantee that we can go to bed at night knowing that our backs are covered.

I have always been proud to be American, but today is special.  Today’s events demonstrate the willingness of Americans to go the extra mile to reach the mountaintop and to achieve what seemed to be unachievable!  This is who we are!