Maid of Honor
I need to write it down before I forget. It came to me while I was showering on a hot day.
Something very telling about J: She puts things down in ink. No dithering about in pencil. No drafting and redrafting on post-its or on the backs of old envelopes. She reaches deep and grasps -- with confidence, with clear eyes -- the principle beauty or truth of the thing and in broad, brave strokes, she traces them out with pen. Whether in her drawings and paintings or in her letters, her love notes --
All her notes are love notes. Anyone who has been fortunate enough to have been a recipient of a (love) note from Janie knows that they are often hand-crafted on the outside and on the inside they are brimming with observations about the recipient that he dared not believe. It is perhaps in Janie's earnestness? Or using her disarming childlikeness that she intuits the faintest trace of beauty -- or the hint of dormant, latent beauty which has rarely been seen and which perhaps was a fluke -- she conjures the lines with her mind's eye, translates them to ink on the page, fills them out with color and light. She is especially good at capturing light, which we can see from the pieces where she captures the most subtle, diaphanous things like the way flecks of light glint off a glass bottle or from the eyes of an emaciated child overcome by some mysterious, sublime joy.
The way she draws people lends them a glimpse of the way God must see them: beautiful and true. She summons only the most beautiful and true elements of a person.
And she puts them down in ink. There is hardly space for artifice or contrivance in it. Those who have had the pleasure of spending any amount of time with Janie know that when you're with her, you are getting all of her unrehearsed person. No drafts or do-overs -- just pure, unedited, unassuming Janie, who is edifying and charitable, silly and mischievous, always kind-hearted.
She puts them down in ink. She draws, paints, writes for keeps. Many of you sitting on the bride's side of the aisle may not have seen Janie in a long time. Many of you came from very far -- in space or time -- to celebrate today's marriage. And perhaps a number of you have not known her exceptionally long -- only a couple years or less. But Janie plays for keeps. Her relationships are enduring, and we know her commitment to our hearts is ironclad. And today, we have all gathered to celebrate Janie tracing out her union with Steve in the most permanent ink.
Steve -- having heard about him over the years... Getting the back-stage view in the movie where Janie is the protagonist... I know he is a good one because, although Janie may have been biased in her relating even the slightest kindness -- each serenading note he their courtship -- thought Janie may have been biased, I have also been biased. I have graded him harshly, and despite it, he's passed every evaluation (glowingly).
I need to sleep now, but I should say: Steve, you might wonder why I am going on about a thing you -- being a smart guy -- much have known right away. And here is why.
Why.
Something very telling about J: She puts things down in ink. No dithering about in pencil. No drafting and redrafting on post-its or on the backs of old envelopes. She reaches deep and grasps -- with confidence, with clear eyes -- the principle beauty or truth of the thing and in broad, brave strokes, she traces them out with pen. Whether in her drawings and paintings or in her letters, her love notes --
All her notes are love notes. Anyone who has been fortunate enough to have been a recipient of a (love) note from Janie knows that they are often hand-crafted on the outside and on the inside they are brimming with observations about the recipient that he dared not believe. It is perhaps in Janie's earnestness? Or using her disarming childlikeness that she intuits the faintest trace of beauty -- or the hint of dormant, latent beauty which has rarely been seen and which perhaps was a fluke -- she conjures the lines with her mind's eye, translates them to ink on the page, fills them out with color and light. She is especially good at capturing light, which we can see from the pieces where she captures the most subtle, diaphanous things like the way flecks of light glint off a glass bottle or from the eyes of an emaciated child overcome by some mysterious, sublime joy.
The way she draws people lends them a glimpse of the way God must see them: beautiful and true. She summons only the most beautiful and true elements of a person.
And she puts them down in ink. There is hardly space for artifice or contrivance in it. Those who have had the pleasure of spending any amount of time with Janie know that when you're with her, you are getting all of her unrehearsed person. No drafts or do-overs -- just pure, unedited, unassuming Janie, who is edifying and charitable, silly and mischievous, always kind-hearted.
She puts them down in ink. She draws, paints, writes for keeps. Many of you sitting on the bride's side of the aisle may not have seen Janie in a long time. Many of you came from very far -- in space or time -- to celebrate today's marriage. And perhaps a number of you have not known her exceptionally long -- only a couple years or less. But Janie plays for keeps. Her relationships are enduring, and we know her commitment to our hearts is ironclad. And today, we have all gathered to celebrate Janie tracing out her union with Steve in the most permanent ink.
Steve -- having heard about him over the years... Getting the back-stage view in the movie where Janie is the protagonist... I know he is a good one because, although Janie may have been biased in her relating even the slightest kindness -- each serenading note he their courtship -- thought Janie may have been biased, I have also been biased. I have graded him harshly, and despite it, he's passed every evaluation (glowingly).
I need to sleep now, but I should say: Steve, you might wonder why I am going on about a thing you -- being a smart guy -- much have known right away. And here is why.
Why.
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