Midnight Mutterings | Zooming into matrimony

||| MIDNIGHT MUTTERINGS BY JACKIE BATES |||

Just before Christmas, 2020, a couple I met on the beach told me about their wedding which was held the day before in her Seattle  apartment. Only the bride and groom were present.

The bride handed me her phone so I could see the selfies. There she is, in white, veiled, as she starts down a long hallway toward the groom. He, splendid in his morning coat, waits alone inside the apartment door which is decorated with Christmas greenery.

Later they stand together before the tiered wedding cake, grinning broadly,deed apparently done. And even later they feed each other bites of wedding cake they do not have to share with anyone else. Later still, they raise champagne glasses to toasts they say are emerging from their laptop.

The officiant is in San Francisco. Some family members rose early in Dublin, in Singapore, to see them legally married. People in Idaho and from just down the street in Seattle join in.

It is a big wedding. They can only estimate the virtual guests in attendance. A lot of people, they say. We could never have afforded such a big wedding. People would have been left out. Hurt. Disappointed.

I ask about the requisite drunken uncle who embarrasses himself at too many weddings. The groom said, Yes, of course. We muted him.

I observe that such a wedding sounds ideal. Less stressful. The groom agrees. And cheaper with ZOOM. I can afford to marry many times.
Me too, whispers the bride. Me too.

Note: I offer this vignette (which occurred at a much simpler time in our history) after four days of online viewing of the U.S. Senate trial of the second impeachment of former President Donald J. Trump. The voting by the Senate will occur and verdict [might] be announced on the day this column is published in The Orcasonian.

The following description is from Wikipedia:
“The second impeachment of Donald Trump, the 45 th president of the United States, occurred on January 13, 2021, one week before his term expired. The House of Representatives of the 117 th U.S. Congress adopted one article of impeachment against Trump of ‘incitement of insurrection’, alleging that Trump incited the January 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol. These events were preceded by numerous unsuccessful attempts by Trump to overturn the 2020 presidential election, as well as his pushing of baseless voter fraud conspiracy theories about the election.

“A single article of impeachment charging Trump with “incitement of insurrection” against the U.S. government and “lawless action at the Capitol” was introduced to the House of Representatives on January 11, 2021.”