Humboldt Park 05.31.08

There are many things to be in this world, things of all sizes and shapes, of every category and description: animal, plant, mineral...water and air, rain cloud and blue sky.

One might be a peace corps volunteer in Africa, or a keyboard player in Kansas, one might be a librarian or a facilities manager, a teacher, a housecat, or a little ant.

One might be the president of the United States. One might be an ostrich.

One might be a water lily, a butterfly, an African wild dog, an octopus or a little penguin on a rock.

One might have been Louis the 14th, or the queen of Spain, or one might be an electric Jellyfish pulsing in the waves.

Any one of us might be any one of these. We might have just missed being what we are but for the smallest detail: when our dad’s car pulled up outside our mom’s house for the first time…where farm land happened to be cheap in the American Midwest in the middle 1800’s...or when some pieces of dirt happened to collide and stick together to make a planet four billion years ago.

We might have been any of these things, and to be sure, someone has to be all of them. We all have our work to do, our role to play, we all have our place to hold, the ant and Louis the 14th, both.

And of all of these things, two of them happened to have met and fallen in love not long ago…in love being among the very best things to be. And the best place to be that is here, right now, at the very beginning, in this park, in this city, on this day.

Welcome.