One of Everything

"We fool ourselves and cheat ourselves when we say that all of us are the same. We should not want to be the same as others and we should not want others to be the same as us. Rather, we ought to glory and shine in all of our differences, flaunting them fabulously for all to see! It is never a conformity that we need! We need not to conform! What we need is to burst out into all these beautiful colors!" ~C. JoyBell

Okay, for those of you impatient readers who have been asking when I will be blogging all about the wedding, here's a bit of a start on that today.  My plan is to wait until I've gotten all of the photos and the video before I really get going on this.  So let's all take a deep breath together, in......and out.  You'll be sick to death of wedding talk by the time I'm done anyway.

We served bbq brisket at the wedding reception.  Great meal for all but one, my Aggie Friend, who is a vegetarian.  So, I told my  mom we had to have one vegetarian meal at the reception.  After convincing her that she could not, "Eat the potato salad and just pick the bacon out of the beans," my mom called the caterer and made the request.  She finished her call with the following observation.  "My kids have one of every kind of friend."

And it's true.  As I looked around the reception, we really do have one of every kind of friend.  There were babies who were only months old and grandparents in their eighties.  People wore jeans, people wore heels, my High School Buddy showed up in a t-shirt and I would have expected nothing less  (unless he wore the old work shirt my dad gave him one time).   My college roommates were there, as was my dad's college roommate, and my very first childhood friend. There were criminal defense attorneys sitting across the aisle from an assistant U.S. attorney sitting across the aisle from someone who spent some time in jail (and not to visit a client).  There were Christians and atheists. People who have traveled the world next to those who have never been on a plane.  Pro-life Catholics ate cake with pro-choice Democrats.  Police officers, pharmacists, teachers, stay at home moms, and ranchers all shared the dance floor.  Several of my high school teammates were on the dance floor, as was a friend The Boy from Texas and I met less than a year ago.  People who had never ridden a horse ate brisket with people who sat in a saddle before they could walk.  My girlfriends from elementary school sat next to parents of my friends from the showing family.  College friends visited with law school classmates. There was a range of life experiences and ethnicities, and income levels.

 

And you know what?  I'm better for knowing every one of those people.  My life is fuller with them in it.  Whether they don't eat meat or have never owned a suit or have not traveled outside the county.  Thank God for our differences and for bringing this group into my life.  I am thankful each of the ones.