The most touching wedding story I’ve ever read!
(via StyleMePretty)
A few weeks before the wedding, Melissa tore her Achilles tendon. She was originally told she was okay to deal with the tear after the wedding. However, after getting a second opinion, she was in emergency surgery just days before the wedding. While this was occurring, her father’s health began to deteriorate. I was aware that he had Parkinson’s, and that we’d be making special arrangements for him. But, his health took a turn for the worse, and we weren’t sure he’d attend the wedding.
I coordinated with the groom to carry the bride back down the aisle, and she would be alternating through the day between crutches, a wheelchair and standing single-legged with her hurt leg in a boot. Her father was able to attend, and family members wheeled father and daughter down the aisle in matching wheelchairs. To say that there was not a single dry eye in the house was an understatement. Her father was able to give her away, stay through the ceremony, and was able to join for a few quick photos.
The bride and her family amazed me. Melissa never complained, never wavered and was the epitome of strength. Eric, her groom, was supportive, attentive and simply wonderful. They were able to dance their first dance (I was so thankful that they were “Tall” and “Small!”), do a group dance to the “Wobble” and enjoy the entire day. By the wedding’s end, Melissa father was back in the emergency room. Melissa and Eric went to the hospital instead of their after party. The following morning, a brunch was held at the Marine Room. Melissa’s mother hosted over 80 guests, and I was not sure what to expect when I arrived. Melissa, Eric and their families were smiling, gracious and happy and greeted their guests, as I was on hand to coordinate and design additional florals.
Melissa’s family returned to the hospital immediately after the brunch to be by her father’s side. He was grateful to be visited by close family members and friends from afar. He passed away unexpectedly late that night, the day after he gave his daughter away. It was horribly sad, but the strength this family showed, Melissa and Eric in particular…was incredible.
Marina Abramović, Rhythm 0, 1974
“This piece was primarily a trust exercise, in which she told viewers she would not move for six hours no matter what they did to her. She placed 72 objects one could use in pleasing or destructive ways, ranging from flowers and a feather boa to a knife and a loaded pistol, on a table near her and invited the viewers to use them on her however they wanted.
Initially, Abramović said, viewers were peaceful and timid, but it escalated to violence quickly. “The experience I learned was that … if you leave decision to the public, you can be killed… I felt really violated: they cut my clothes, stuck rose thorns in my stomach, one person aimed the gun at my head, and another took it away. It created an aggressive atmosphere. After exactly 6 hours, as planned, I stood up and started walking toward the public. Everyone ran away, escaping an actual confrontation.”
This piece revealed something terrible about humanity, similar to what Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment or Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Experiment, both of which also proved how readily people will harm one another under unusual circumstances.”
This performance showed just how easy it is to dehumanize a person who doesn’t fight back, and is particularly powerful because it defies what we think we know about ourselves. I’m certain the no one reading this believes the people around him/her capable of doing such things to another human being, but this performance proves otherwise.”
(Source: andrewfishman, via dearbuddha)
America’s News Media: Where Rape Is Rewarded With Positive News Coverage
(via algietheminer)
[TW: RAPE]
- American media on the India gang rape:
- Omg those barbarians are out of control! Look at us, we're so ahead of the times!
- American media on the Steubenville rape:
- Omg look at the lives we're ruining by convicting these 16 year old rapists!
(Source: simplythejourney)
(via justsloth)
“I almost wish we were butterflies and liv’d but three summer days - three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain.” - Bright Star (2009)
(Source: cesarelucrezia, via leopoldgursky)
This is alarming and saddening. We need to re-think how society is run.
(Source: jellybutterfly, via algietheminer)
(Source: smurphyland)
