My Big Fat Bahá'í Wedding

OK, well not exactly my wedding, but I was a guest. ;-)

Some dear friends of ours down in Aracaju got married this past weekend and we were fortunate enough to be able to attend. This was a real production! I'm estimating around 350 guests (maybe 400) in a lavishly decorated hall complete with spiral staircase and rolled-out red carpet. The service itself was elaborate, consisting of prayers in no less than four languages, chants in at least two, songs from a live band, readings on the nature of Bahá'í marriage, talks, a video presentation, the WORKS. There was even a belly-dancer! Anyway, despite the fact that the couple made clear this was not a typical Bahá'í wedding (making clear, in fact, that there is no typical Bahá'í wedding) and that a couple may structure their wedding in whatever way is pleasing to them as long as they include the reading of the verse, "we will all, verily, abide by the Will of God," one guest was still moved to ask my wife, "when your brother got married a couple of years ago, why didn't he have a Bahá'í wedding?" Sigh.

Anyway, congratulations to F and G!

The Princess Bride

Along with her enduring love of Phantom of the Opera, Jasmin has now become an avid watcher of the Rob Reiner classic, the Princess Bride. It had been a while since I'd watched the adventures of Westley, Buttercup and the rest, but the years have not been unkind to this film in the least. It is still one of the best comedy/romance/action films ever made with, quite possibly, the most cleverly-written screenplay of all time.
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Buttercup: We'll never survive!
Westley: Nonsense. You're only saying that because no one ever has.
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Prince Humperdinck: Surrender!
Westley: You mean you wish to surrender to me? Very well - I accept.
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Inigo: I do not suppose you could speed things up?
Man in Black: If you're in such a hurry, you could lower a rope, or a tree branch, or find something useful to do.
Inigo: I could do that. In fact, I've got some rope up here. But I do not think that you will accept my help, since I am only waiting around to kill you.
Man in Black: That does put a damper on our relationship.
Inigo: But I promise I will not kill you until you reach the top.
Man in Black: That's very comforting. But I'm afraid you'll just have to wait.
Inigo: I hate waiting. I could give you my word as a Spaniard.
Man in Black: No good. I've known too many Spaniards.
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More quotes here.

Bringing it all together

A new project will soon begin here in the Recife Bahá'í community. The city is very large and spread out with a very small number of Bahá'ís. Therefore, the study circles and children's classes that have begun recently are quite far apart and attended by only a few seekers and Bahá'ís. Now, once every two months, we will have a large meeting where all the study circles and children's classes meet together in the same room - kind of a community reunion, where members new and old as well as seekers can get more of a chance to interact with one another, and not just with their own tiny group of friends. As a bonus, this meeting will be held in our building! The first one is planned for the end of March and I will post more news and information as it develops.