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Please help me think of something quick !
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Subject: Please help me think of something quick ! From: Dave Swan Date: 04 Aug 99 - 12:57 PM I'm serving as best man at a dear friend's wedding this weekend. My part of the ceremony includes reading something appropriate to the occasion. The B&G have been unable to find anything they like, so with time a-wasting I suggested a number of works yesterday and no joy. Here's the rub. About half of the attendees are limited speakers of English. I need something sweet and easy to grasp which doesn't sound like a Hallmark card. I keep thinking one of the Lakes poets must have something, but keep finding things written in the first person, or about Lucy or...you know the drill. If anybody has a bright idea I'll be very grateful. Thanks very much. Oh, P.J. is of no help here. She loves it when I recite the Cremation of Sam McGee, and suggested that as a fall back. No help at all. Cheers, Dave |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: Easy Rider Date: 04 Aug 99 - 01:14 PM You could recite one of Shakespeare's Sonnets.
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: Barbara Date: 04 Aug 99 - 01:19 PM "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways..." Browning |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: Allan C. Date: 04 Aug 99 - 01:20 PM We just had a thread on the most romantic songs. You could possibly find a suggestion there for something from which you could simply read the lyrics aloud. |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: annamill Date: 04 Aug 99 - 01:25 PM A couple of time this book has been mentioned and Peter T.used a line from it not too long ago. I feel it would be really appropriate in this situation. The book is called "The Prophet" and is written by Kahlil Gibran. The section on sharing your life (marriage) is beautiful. Please tell me what you think if you get a chance to read it. I think it would be easy to memorize too. Love, annap |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: Lonesome EJ Date: 04 Aug 99 - 08:05 PM How about " I've always found that marriage is like a hot bath: Once you've been in for a while, it's not so hot." |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: catspaw49 Date: 04 Aug 99 - 08:10 PM Well I posted earlier but it seems to have gotten lost in the Mudcat shuffle. I think you should used your best James Earl Jones impression, with great inflection, but with that certain lightness and read:
Row...row......ROW..........your Boat... Or since they don't have a great grasp of English you could read a little Kahlil Gibran. Nobody has the least idea what he's talking about unless you're stoned to the gills. Sounds nice though. Hope this is helpful...Always glad to be of service to a friend. Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: Roger in Baltimore Date: 04 Aug 99 - 09:02 PM Dave, Paul's letter to the Corinthians in the Bible has a nice section on love. It should not be hard to find, but I can quote the chapter but not the verse. Roger |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: Roger in Baltimore Date: 04 Aug 99 - 09:06 PM Perhaps you could hide your guitar in your hip pocket and then get up and sing Kate Wolf's "Give Yourself to Love." It's in the DT and so easy to find with the new index. CLICK HERE Roger in Baltimore |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: Barbara Shaw Date: 04 Aug 99 - 09:14 PM From Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha: As unto the bow the cord is So unto the man is woman Tho she bends him she obeys him Tho she draws him yet she follows Useless each without the other. Here's the whole poem: http://geocities.com/~spanoudi/poems/song-10.html
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: alison Date: 04 Aug 99 - 09:40 PM Roger chapter and verse is 1 Corinthians 13 V 4-8.... (Lots of "love is......) slainte alison |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: Big Mick Date: 04 Aug 99 - 10:16 PM How then can I say what I wish both of you this day? I wish your love be timeless, eternal, and ever young I wish that all you dream, be made whole in the love and partnership you pledge to one another today I wish that every joy and every heartache that you must bear in this life, be borne in the loving partnership that you begin in this place and on this day And I wish that all the love felt for you both by those gathered here today, nurtures you both and helps you on the way. |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: WyoWoman Date: 04 Aug 99 - 11:28 PM Ah, Mick. Nice. Very nice. Dave, here's one I did at some friends' wedding. It's one of those things that comes over the email, unattributed. but SOMEONE wrote a lovely thing... It might be too non-traditional for your friends, but mine loved it. (If they want traditional, read Psalm 127/128.) WW "Benediction" May your trails be crooked, winding,lonesome,dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. May your rivers flow without end, meandering through pastoral valleys tinkling with bells, past temples and castles and poets' towers into a dark primeval forest where tigers belch and monkeys howl, through miasmal and mysterious swamps and down into a desert of red rock, blue mesas, domes and pinnacles and grottos of endless stone, and down again into a deep, vast, ancient, unknown chasm where bars of sunlight blaze on profiled cliffs, where deer walk across the white sand beaches, where storms come and go as lightning clangs upon the high crags, where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you- beyond that next turning of the canyon walls. -author unknown
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: catspaw49 Date: 04 Aug 99 - 11:40 PM Uh, nice.......sorta'....but,uh......... WHERE TIGERS BELCH ??? Geez, I suppose it's better than "Where possums fart"...but not by much. Maybe El Swanno could modify that line a bit. Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: WyoWoman Date: 04 Aug 99 - 11:57 PM I actually sort of loved the belching tigers imagery. Wild and unfettered and ... well, NOW I'm seeing tigers sitting around in tank tops and baggy jockey shorts scratching their bellies and pulling each other's fingers. Thanks a lot Spaw... ww |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: catspaw49 Date: 05 Aug 99 - 12:09 AM LMAO....great post WW!!!! Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: bseed(charleskratz) Date: 05 Aug 99 - 12:11 AM Paul in Corinthians is talking about Christian love, which is--he says--long suffering and kind; beautiful, but he keeps going back and forth to compare it with faith and hope, which don't fare as well in comparison. My mother read the Kahlil Gibran thing at my niece's wedding: it really is beautiful, emphasizing that while marriage is a union, each individual must respect the other's rights. I also like--and would love to read at a wedding--WyoWoman's contribution, belching tiger and all--but it is even more symbollic, ergo more difficult to understand, than the Gibran. I dunno, Dave. Just put on your gorilla suit and net hose and nobody will care what you say. --seed |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: katlaughing Date: 05 Aug 99 - 12:18 AM Hi, Dave. I wrote the following for my daughter's wedding. Several non-traditional friends have used it at their own. Please feel free if you like it, I just ask that I get credit, even in tiny print or whatever, as it is one of my copyrighted pieces. Thanks and good luck!
ON THIS DAY
On this day, I wish for you,
Through the years,
I ask the Great Spirit to
May you walk in balance
©1995 by Kathleen LaFrance
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: catspaw49 Date: 05 Aug 99 - 12:27 AM I really did like most of WW's, but Kat my love, that is just beautiful!!!! And you managed to avoid a belching tiger!!! Gets my vote!!!!! Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: campfire Date: 05 Aug 99 - 01:14 AM Kat, that is beautiful. And Lonesome EJ - I think it depends who you marry. campfire |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: Peter T. Date: 05 Aug 99 - 09:13 AM Dave, This may be a bit much, but I have recited this sonnet at a number of weddings, and always got a great response. Most people don't follow all the language, but the high points are clear. It is a beautiful thing read out loud, because of the alliteration, emphases and pauses. You can really impress people with your snazzy Elizabethan!! yours, Peter T.
Let me not to the marriage of true minds |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: Winters Wages Date: 05 Aug 99 - 12:56 PM You could recite a couple verses of "Give Yourself To Love"..(Kate Wolf) Short..not too complicated..10-4?? |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: Bert Date: 05 Aug 99 - 01:02 PM That's great kat. Bert. |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: annamill Date: 05 Aug 99 - 01:08 PM Well Dave, There have been some wonderful suggestions here. Have we been some help? What ya gonna do? annap |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: Dave Swan Date: 05 Aug 99 - 01:25 PM Thanks so much to everyone. The well known M'cat generosity, creativity, and irreverence shine throughout this thread .I am greatful to you one and all. Having spent all day yesterday with the groom, I'm off today to have lunch with both B&G. I'll let you know what they choose. Thanks again. Dave |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: katlaughing Date: 05 Aug 99 - 02:03 PM Bert, Campfire and 'Spaw: thank you very much. It came from the heart....the first wedding of one of my kids and I couldn't be there, so that's how I took part. They had a JP perform the service, very thick New England broooaaaddd accent, who didn't read it over first. You should hear the job he did on reading it! Still, it came out okay and everyone there knew me and knew where it came from. kat |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: WyoWoman Date: 08 Aug 99 - 07:01 PM Kat, that's just lovely. Lucky children, yours. Hey, at least the tigers are belching. Heaven knows WHAT the damned possum is doing! Now, I want to know the rest of the story from Dave...You will let us know what you eventually decide on so we can steal it for the next wedding WE get invited to read for? WW |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: Alice Date: 08 Aug 99 - 08:45 PM Well, the ceremony must be over by now. What did you decide to say, Dave? |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: Art Thieme Date: 09 Aug 99 - 05:52 PM NESTLES (that's Quick)!!! Art |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: katlaughing Date: 09 Aug 99 - 06:01 PM Oh, Art...you are in rare form, today! I guess they could have served it with ice cold fresh milk, eh? That used to be the only way my parents could get me to drink milk! kat |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: Dave Swan Date: 09 Aug 99 - 09:22 PM Once again, thank you to everyone who has helped me find something to say. I printed the postings to the thread and took them to Kevin and Deanna late last week. They immediately expressed their thanks to all of you and were impressed that these friends they had never met(many of whom I've never met in the flesh)would so generously contribute to their day. P.J. was also at work and contributed material as well. In the end Kevin and Deanna chose an E.B. Browning sonnet; this which P.J. found from the Tang Shi, a book of 300 Chinese poems from the Tang period (618-907)called THE SONG OF A PURE HEARTED GIRL (The author is Meng Jiao, a name familiar to the bride's family, most of whom are Chinese speakers) Lakka-trees ripen two by two And mandarin ducks die side by side If a true hearted girl will love only her husband In a life as faithfully lived as theirs What troubling wave can arrive to vex A spirit like water in a timeless well? and Big Mick's posting of August 4. I rehearsed carefully, remembering all those lessons from all those years in theatre school and I was loaded for bear when it came my time to speak. The first two pieces went off fine, then I got to Big Mick's. Two lines in I tightenend up, three lines in I choked, four lines in I sobbed, then began to get it together until I looked at the bride, whom I had caused to cry. By now the groomsmen were going too. I am told I was audible and understandable throughout, but I don't know how. So there's the outcome. Thanks again to everyone. It was a lovely wedding. As Thornton Wilder said "All those good women standing side by side, making sure the knot gets tied in a mighty public way." Hey Mick, my Mudcat personal message isn't working. Drop me an e-mail at cygnus@sirius.com. Cheers, Dave |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: WyoWoman Date: 10 Aug 99 - 01:42 AM Lovely, Dave. I'm so happy this community could contribute. WW |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: bseed(charleskratz) Date: 10 Aug 99 - 02:04 AM Good choice, Dave. Mick, I loved that one the first time I read it and would have recommended it but a tiger belched and blew it right out of my mind. --seed |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: WyoWoman Date: 12 Aug 99 - 12:56 AM BRRRAAAACCCKKKKK!!!!
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: catspaw49 Date: 12 Aug 99 - 01:00 AM cute Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: bseed(charleskratz) Date: 12 Aug 99 - 02:47 AM So, Dave and PJ: Is it the Starry Plough this Sunday? And has anyone heard from FADAC about his experience in summer camp? Are you out there, Ralph? I went to Quinn's last Thursday: Sonja and Kyle, RiGGy joining the band--Winters Wages and the Sons of the Buccaneers which he's taken to calling the Starboard Watch (they still wear the SOB T-shirts and the sign outside the door announces them as such--What is it, Lloyd, you're tired of being an old sea dog SOB? :o) --seed |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: Big Mick Date: 12 Aug 99 - 11:48 AM Waddya mean, "BBRRRAAAACCCCCKKKKK" humph. hahahahaha Big Mick sulking. |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: Winters Wages Date: 12 Aug 99 - 01:17 PM You should probably go up and ask Skip or Jim...they will tell you it is "Starboard Watch" If you notice..the junk that was up over the winow is now gone..the pictures will soon be replaced so I am advised. (who knows) Bruce and old member of the "watch" will be sitting in from now on. FADAC is back he has a thread called Lark Camp ( posted on 8/9/99) I saw him last night and he had a great time. Jim, myself and Larry Johnson played "open mike" the other night at the freight. See Ya Winters Wages |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: WyoWoman Date: 12 Aug 99 - 10:09 PM That was the sound of Big Mick belching! (I hear he's a tiger!) ww |
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Subject: RE: Please help me think of something quick ! From: PJ Date: 13 Aug 99 - 12:44 AM seed- The answer is yes for this Sunday nite, at least for me, that is. Dave's on duty for the next 3 Sundays, but as far as I know RiGGy will be there. I saw FADAC post on another thread about playing some sort of unauthorized instrument at Lark camp, so he musta went-- what was it FADAC, a watermelon ocarina? When are we gonna see the FADMEISTER and Winter's Wages at the Ploughy Star? Come to think of it, it's not all that far a drive from Sacratomato to Bezerkeley, Mr. Offer... So what, you couldn't maybe come down once a month if I'm buyin' the beer? I got home late from work tonight guys, what'd I miss at Quinn's? PJ |
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