Jamaican Run

The save-the-date announcement for my niece’s December wedding arrived with more than the usual details of time and place. It included packages for 3 nights all inclusive accommodations - in Jamaica! This wedding has more than a venue – it has a destination.

I’ve heard of nuptial jaunts to far-off locations. Never been invited to be part of one before. It’ll mean packing my passport as well as the wedding present. The passport I haven’t used since the children (well – they were children then) and I spent some time in Ireland – in 2000! Which means, the passport has to be renewed. Better get on that today.

Something else new, for me, about this wedding. The couple’s son and daughter will be attending. The four of them have been a family for quite some time now. And while I’ve seen “official” marriages start up and peter out here and there, or ones that don’t peter – just putt, putt, putt along with little of the energy it takes to be a working family, this couple made a commitment a long time ago – license or no license – to do it right. My own family’s Brad and Angelina thing, sans the extraordinary means Brad and Ang have to care for a non-nuclear family. A new millennium family I guess, in a time where (as I’ve been reminded over and over) relationships are different.

I wonder if the children, 10 and 7, had something to do with making the bond official. I do know, however, that this ceremonial touch is not just skimming the surface of propriety. A quick trip to a local church or town hall could have done that. Since this future Mr. and Mrs. have already achieved the precarious family balance– the juggle of parenting around two working schedules, the whirl of family activities, community involvement - why Dad even runs the local PTA! –life could have gone on and on well enough. But, I’m told He surprised Her: A Dinner. A Ring. Heard He got down on one knee even.

So in between what they have built in the past and will continue to build in the future, they are making it official in December – under the Jamaican sun. There had better be sun if I’m flying off to Jamaica.

Now, where’s that passport and number for Orbitz?

THINGS TO DO_Costa Rica _Damas Island Mangrove - From Manuel Antonio

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