I'm as devout a Catholic as they come these days, especially considering I went to Cal and I go to Burning Man. My dad was on his way to becoming a priest before he met my mom. My sister was on her way to becoming a nun before she met her husband. And I...well, I'm about to marry an Italian Catholic.
The Catholic church requires at least a six month timeframe of marriage prep prior to getting married. Marriage prep consists of meeting with our deacon several times, a weekend engagement encounter, family planning classes, questionnaires and discussions. It's all so...involved. Yak.
I wasn't looking forward to this process. I saw it as something to check off our list. But we met with our deacon tonight for the first time and he is a hoot! He was married twice, divorced once, had four boys and one baby girl of the family. He went on and on about how it was so joyous to finally have his girl. He was sure she'd have the relationship thing nailed since she grew up with four brothers. Figuring guys out would be a breeze. "It sure did," he cackled, "she's gay! Ahhh, life is so unexpected and wonderful. If you know exactly what's going to happen, it's not fun. Surprises are fun."
By the time we left the parish office, Dean had a man-crush on our deacon. He seemed so carefree and happy to be guiding us through the preparation. "One of my sons is finally drug-free after spending time at St. Anthony's. Another one is a police officer up in Sacramento. The other one cleaned up his act after getting his high-school sweetheart pregnant. They have a home in Pleasant Hill with their two boys. I got a boy who's at Dodge & Cox making $300,000 a year. And I told you about my girl. She's gay. We all support her. Blessed family, I tell you. Wonderful to watch it unfold."
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