Day 23: A song that you want to play at your wedding.
The timing on this one worked out well -- my sister is actually getting married this week.
As for myself... well, this is not a simple subject. Start with all of the difficulties of picking an appropriate song for an important occasion you'll remember all the rest of your days. A song that somehow encapsulates the sense of completeness you've been waiting your whole life to feel and express. Already, that makes this without a doubt the most difficult category in this entire Challenge thing.
But then add to that my... uh... "special circumstances." Those being that, for me to get ever married in the recognized-by-law-as-an-actual-marriage sense, I don't need just one special person to say yes, I need several million complete strangers to say it too. Millions of people I don't know and will never meet are going to have to finally come to a change of heart and realize that their own lives are not in any way made safer, better, or holier by their preventing people like me from getting married. Or, if not several millions of people, at least a handful of very powerful people in the right places.
I have a soft spot for classic songs. And I believe there's one that does a pretty damn good job of wrapping all the above in one perfect package -- "At Last," as performed by Etta James:
I probably shouldn't say any more, having made my point the best way I possibly can. But I have to acknowledge that, as much as I like this version, I think Cyndi Lauper recorded an even more powerful and emotional take on the song. It's just that hers is stripped down and slow -- almost free time. In short, it can make me cry tears of joy, but you really can't dance to it.
This is supposed to be a for a wedding, after all.
1 comment:
Excellent, excellent choice.
At my own wedding, the one song we wanted to start the whole thing with was Take This Waltz, by Leonard Cohen. I'm still deeply moved by it.
FKL
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