Friday
I went with Lise to visit one of her potential project sites over by Sturgis,
MI. The site is a hydroelectric dam that
went online in 1911. So the adventure of the week was walking the catwalk over
the dam that I think was installed when it went online.
Crossing the Sturgis Dam
Looking back to the generation plant.
Yesterday Lise and I went to the wedding of Helen, a former
co-worker and friend, and her partner Elizabeth. Helen is one of my favorite people.
It was a moving, if slightly disorganized ceremony. They started by asking the
audience to say yea if they felt that the union should go forward. There was a unanimous
and rousing YEA from the audience.
One of the readings was Supreme Court Justice Anthony
Kennedy, writing for the majority opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges, the ruling
that made gay marriage legal. “In forming a marital
union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the
petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may
endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they
disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect
it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope
is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of
civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of
the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”
More eloquent words were never spoken.
Elizabeth, Helen, and Elizabeth’s daughters. A happy family. (facebook photo)
There are a few things I never expected to see in my
lifetime. A woman in the White House, legalized gay marriage, and the Cubs
winning the World Series. Two out of three ain’t bad.
Ed's and Lise's Biggish Years 