The first wedding of the rest of my life

Dramatic, isn’t it? No, it’s not my wedding, it’s Shie and Leigh’s wedding, two Peace Corps volunteers that met here and got married. I want to say congratulations and numai bine, un viitor lung impreuna, plin de dragoste si intelegere.

This was the first wedding I’ve ever actually enjoyed. It’s also my first wedding of my generation, with my friends, in which I felt comfortable with the majority of the people in the room. I’ve never danced before, hell, I don’t even know how, but I danced. I whooped and hollered. I felt truly moved by their vows and their nervousness, a sort of lack of professionalism compared to your average wedding that didn’t indicate a whimsical love, but a couple so excited to see look in each others’ eyes they sometimes trip over their own two feet.

This is one of the few occasions in which I felt I couldn’t have enough fun. I didn’t sulk. I didn’t think about what other people were thinking, I don’t I really had the time to consider it. People have always had a hard time describing what they like about dancing to me, I never accepted “it just feels fun” as a good enough answer, but I’ll tell you what I liked: I like holding other people’s hands; I like running and moving in a way that makes sense, following a beat of something; I like seeing girls at their physical best; I liked seeing other people happy too.

Before when I tried dancing, people always said “just let yourself go, and you’ll start feeling good”. Well, I couldn’t, I don’t work that way. I just wondered what does this mean, a bunch of people wiggling around in a way that you would never do on the street, you would never see anywhere? It seemed like a big institution that faded away with any real thought, like a two dimensional building seen from the side. I always tried to dance thinking that happiness would just come, “feeling good” would start as if someone pushed a button, but that’s not how it works either. Not thinking is not the solution to happiness; in fact, the very opposite is true. Think, focus on the music, pay attention to everything around you that makes you happy.

The Moldovan dance the Hora really helped me out. It’s a dance you do in a circle, similar to Jewish dances, and it’s something that I can do. I can focus on moving to the music, I can move my arms in a consistent motion, I can look across from me and see how what I’m doing is making: a big, pulsing circle of people!