Brad’s first marriage

So my good friend Tim, whom I’ve been friends with since 1981, is marrying his fiancee, Virginia.  For this reason, I got ordained by the Universal Life Church to officiate their wedding.  Tim and I grew up together in Wisconsin.  We met in catholic grade school, played AD&D throughout high school, and hung out and partied through the early 90’s.  He took me to get my first tattoo when I was recovering from a terrible bout of food poisoning, and he accompanied myself and a friend on my move out to Portland back in 1995.

Tim is one of a core of 5 guys that I’ve known for over 20 years.  He’s lived all over the world in squats, ranches, and houses throughout Central America and Europe.  He’s a woodworker and carpenter, a fire-dancer and musician, a clever wit and a tender soul.  I have met very few people in life who are near to his level of genuine, caring sincerity. 

Virginia grew up in Argentina.  She is an artist, and her specialty is making puppetts of late.  She is a classic beautiful latina with a gracile frame, warm smile, and wonderful laugh that seems to somehow communicate her own generous spirit.  They met when Tim was living near Mexico City back in 2004.

To see them together doing anything is to see love.  It is something that hangs in the air between them.

So last week when they were proclaiming that they were trying to get married in the next couple of weeks (because they are both tired of having to play the immigration hokey-pokey for Virginia).  I caved and followed through with becoming ordained because I had wanted to for some time.  That, and I wanted to be the one to marry them.  Tim is like my brother, and Virginia is just such a wonderful, intelligent, kind woman.  I can think of no greater honor than marrying them today at noon.