wedding rehearsal

Time stopped at Monterey last week. Part of the world stopped.

A major building block was to be laid in the edifice of life.

That was the matrimonial union of Joel and Steph. Big, fun, seismic events don't take place with the stroke of a pen, a punch of a key, or the mouthing of a word with just one or two witnesses.

Something real happens. Camels and goats change fields. Servants flock around the families and prepare food, set up meeting places, make music, write documents, prepare rituals. Civil servants at the town hall write this up for the official record. Newspapers print it. Artists skilled in beauty, mirth, culinary arts, and dance are summoned by the leaders of the clans.

The evening before the final event, all the major players gather and walk through the ritual. That's what a wedding rehearsal is. And here is Dorcas checking the rehearsal dinner tables.

By 6:30 p.m. the 30 persons came together and had Thai food here in the foyer of the East Chestnut Street Mennonite Church, Lancaster, Pa.