I guess having a brother isn't so terrible.

The day I've been dreading for 8 months has come and gone.  It was inevitable.  I spent October 9th in sack cloth and ashes.  My sister spent October 9th in a wedding dress.  She was radiant.  The ceremony was beautiful.  The dreadful day turned out to be quite perfect.
 
Jes had asked Amy to do a reading of some kind, so I volunteered to sing a verse or two of "Defying Gravity."  My offer was declined.  Since I wouldn't get the opportunity to bless Jes and Rob with my gift of song, I settled on writing a short passage to be read before they blended their "unity sand". 

Here it is.





 For centuries, sand was used to mark the passage of time, "As sand through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives," and so goes the melodrama.  Today, Rob and Jes choose to pour their history and their future together.  In this moment, with this sand, they choose to move through time as one.


Sand is ever-changing.  Its destiny is found on the whims of waves.  By crashing tides and peaceful currents, sand is carried from one day to the next.  Such is marriage.  Rob and Jes will rest in quiet rivers, they will be ravaged by angry seas, and no two days will ever be the same.


Finally, sand is used as both a filter, to purify, and a mortar, to bond.  Jes and Rob's commitment to each other is personified in this sand.  It is the filter purifying their love and the mortar bonding them together.