Keeper of the Clown Bell

This month I was asked to officiate a wedding and while doing so I took it upon myself to write down some observations on this ancient institution as a codification of natural impulses and a binding of mystical forces that can produce both gold and nitroglycerine (and everything in between) depending on the measure and mixture involved. This great honor was bestowed upon me by my step-daughter so I applied myself and crammed a lifetime worth of contemplation on this subject into a few short paragraphs which, as it turns out, was a wise approach because I had to preform this wedding under the clock of an approaching thunderstorm. As I spoke these words the barometric pressure noticeably dropped and the first heavy drops of rain began to fall as a prelude to the April showers just over my shoulder. Friedrich Nietzsche made the pithy observation that “A married philosopher belongs to comedy” because, in his opinion, no thinking person would willingly shackle themselves ...