The Wedding

And so it arrived. The bittersweet moment when 24 Level III students in the SF International Orff Course stood before their teachers and fellows students to graduate. On the sweet side of the emotional roller coaster was the pride in what they accomplished, the satisfaction knowing the sacrifices they made to achieve this honor and top of the list, the extraordinary emotion of standing side-by-side with the fellow graduates they came to know and love, some of whom will be lifelong friends. All of this and more, mixed with the truth that graduation in this field means you’re ready to begin a work that is never finished and the great sadness that there is no Level IV course for them to return to. Like I said, bittersweet. 

 

As the Master of Ceremony, I turned to the “congregation” of Level I and Level II students, some of them perhaps already imagining themselves there next year, and began:

 

“Dearly Beloved. We are gathered here to witness a marriage, a marriage between the present lives of these 24 beautiful souls with their future teacher self who they met and courted and proposed to and accepted here in this place. 

 

In reality, we are here to celebrate multiple marriages with these lovely people. A marriage between who they were and who they have become. A marriage between who they are now and who they yet will become. A marriage between their hidden self and their revealed self.  Between their last accomplishment and their next possibility. Between their musician and dancer self. Their artist and teacher self. Their childlike and adult self. There’s a lot to celebrate. 

 

For some of them it will be a lifelong commitment. You know, the “for better or worse, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, ‘till death do us part” kind. For others, there may be other turns in the path that take them to new life partners. But I believe that this moment and all the many moments that led to it, will be forever memorable.

 

And so, to you Level III students, with these certificates and flowers and hugs, to the glorious teaching and artistic life that awaits you, we thee wed.”

It was a glorious wedding. And the Level II students caught the tossed bouquet. I will see them next year.