A Wedding Toast

This is such a great looking group of humans! Everyone cleans up nicely. Thank you for making time to be here, I know many of you came a long distance.

My name is Maverick, I’m Ruth’s dad, Carla is her wonderful mom. We’re in our 40th year together and we still like each other. I tell people that I love Carla as much today as I did the day we were married, and that’s what I expect of Ruth and Andrew, a long happy marriage, a till death do us part kind of thing.

Today is something they both have been preparing for.

When Ruth was a baby, Carla told me that she wanted to homeschool our kids. That sounded crazy to me then but I was working a lot and the kids were Carla’s main concern in those days, so I just wanted assurance that Ruth would become an excellent reader and writer. I figured she could learn anything she wanted from there.

And that’s exactly what happened. Ruth spent many hours reading to our wonderful Shepherd/Lab mix in the front yard of our remote cabin in the Virginia woods. Then when Hannah came along, similar time was spent in a sticky red vinyl booth at Friendly’s Ice Cream parlor. Three girls with a stack of library books and an uneaten ice cream Sunday that Ruth always ordered but never ate. Carla and Ruth took turns reading. Hannah listened.

About that time, I also started asking for one specific Christmas present from Ruth. A short story. I still have many of them, wrinkled and pressed among family pictures in a big plastic box under our four poster bed. They’re wonderful stories; I treasure them.

When she was about 9 or so, Ruth started volunteering at St Gerard House for unwed mothers. She was their best babysitter.

By the time she was 21, Ruth stepped it up, becoming a Nanny for a local builder with a big house, a trophy wife, and three unruly kids. She brought a much needed calm, common sense, and order into that house.

It was no mistake that she wound up in LA. Ruth deliberately courted nanny jobs among the beautiful people, putting her writing skills to work in the long distance applications.

One position led to another, they added up to ten years of nanny-hood and personal assistant duties. She got to enjoy the best resorts, dine on meals prepared by personal chefs, fly on private jets, orchestrate moves into showplace homes, and equipping them with whatever was needed. She became very adept at getting things done quickly and efficiently, often through the magic of effective iPhone use.

All that time, she was preparing for this day.

In a parallel universe, Andrew went down an opposite path. He went to school and studied hard. Applying himself, learning, growing, and becoming a successful project engineer with one of the best companies out there. Eleven years with Skanska, the fifth largest construction company in the world. How many guys spend their twenties like that, working, growing and mastering their job? I spent most of my twenties learning how to projectile vomit out my nose.

Andrew was preparing for this day.

Sometimes the most awesome things happen at the intersection of readiness and opportunity. They were both ready, the opportunity was a chance meeting among mutual friends.

Now, Andrew is more than ready to provide a house; Ruth is well equipped to turn it into a home.

So here we are. The opening of a new chapter, new opportunities, and, most likely, new lives.

As an older man, I can say with full certainty that it all goes by too quickly. It’s just the blink of an eye. This moment is all we ever have, the past a memory, the future a hope.

My challenge to you two, Andrew and Ruth, is to continue do something you are already pretty good at, appreciate every single moment. Happiness is not some destination you arrive at after finally getting that promotion, going on a special vacation, maybe buying a new house. Never delay happiness for the carrot on a stick that is ever elusive. It’s always about the journey, and happiness is a choice, right here and right now.

Revel in it, stop and savor every moment. This is your time.

So please, everyone, raise your glasses with me in a toast to Andrew and Ruth, wishing them many, many years of love, health, and happiness, and the appreciation of each unique moment, the celebration of life itself, in their journey together, hand in hand.