Cicadas Keeping Counterpoint to Matrimony

I've been to a couple of weddings in my lifetime. I've seen uniformed grooms emerge from chapels with giddy brides on one arm and a ceiling of swords held aloft above them. I've seen humble couples leave churches with cars dragging shoes and cans loudly behind them. I've even participated as a main character in a wedding. But this afternoon I attended a wedding I think I'll fondly remember for a long time. In a modest but lovingly decorated chapel in Catonsville, my friends Jen Lockard and Bill Dugan exchanged vows and began their lives as man and wife. Jen was lovely as she came down the aisle with brimming eyes. Bill was handsome and proud as he watched his bride approaching. The priest who performed the ceremony was affable and down-to-earth. He presented the couple with a heartfelt homily that compared them to a royal couple wed earlier that day halfway around the world and reminded them that their vows were just as sacred and valuable to God as any exchanged in a wedding of royals.

It is cicada season here. Bill and Jen have embraced that fact in planning their wedding. The invitations, their blog entries, and even the wedding programs and table favors included cicadas as an inevitable part of their wedding experience. And so they were. But the tent erected in their front yard for the reception had mesh side panels, a plastic and artificial turf floor, and was connected to the house. In the time we spent at the reception, only a few cicadas participated in the festivities. A couple of those became appetizers.

What was meaningful to me was the size of the wedding. It was less than one hundred people. And Joan and I were included. We are honored and blessed to have witnessed this celebration and to have met even more of the Lockardugan circle of friends.

God bless, Jen and Bill. We love you and look forward to spending more time with you.