Wedding Bliss

Normally the actual wedding ceremony drags on like watching live NASCAR, however I was invited to a friend of mines daughter's wedding at the weekend - and I though it was great. It went like this;

1.55 Plonk myself down, wife and wain in tow.
2.00 Brides waltz's in and civil ceremony commences.
2.10 Done and dusted with no religious connotations whatsoever
2.11 Sign register
2.15 Played out to the tune of STAR WARS
2.20 Bar

This is brilliant, no hymns with the embarrassing mumble under your breath, no 75 year old who is tone deaf but knows the words trumpeting in your ear, no over zealous minister/priest preaching the inner working of marriage of which they have no real knowledge, no real time for all the bairns in the audience to start making your life misery and pointing out "the fat lady".

All of this was a surprise to me as the father of the bride is a serving catholic, and a season ticket holder at Parkhead to boot. Surely the offspring of Catholics are brought up with the faith being indoctrinated into them with no room for the weak of faith to continue with a fruitful life!!, but no this is a myth I find.

I decided to question my mate about this, commenting on his weak parenting skills, commenting on how Catholicism had went to rack and ruin and generally noising him up about his failings, he simply shrugged his shoulders and said that his daughter and her groom were atheists but believed in the vows of marriage. He was completely at ease with this as he had brought up his children to make up their own minds and have freedom of choice.

I think this attitude would go a long way to solving the problems experienced throughout our sad little world. Perhaps he should bring up all our kids!