O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
--from Sonnet CXVI by William Shakespeare

Greetings and welcome one and all to this magnificent day!

I am thrilled to see you all in attendance and might I say what an impressive showing of silk and taffeta. I see that we have all taken the mandate to consume less and live within reason by keeping the collective amount of hairspray in check. Excellent. Please mind your heels on the grass; we have opted for an outdoor wedding.

Allow me to introduce the wedding party:
Bride #1: Jenny Talia of One Plus Two
Bride #2: Mad Hatter (me)
Brides #3-30: see below
Maid of Honour: Andrea of A Garden of Nna Mmoy
DJ and Toastmaster: Deezee of Confessional Highway (full wedding dance playlist available on Jen's side of the dance hall)

Please make sure you work your way through the full receiving line; all the brides are anxious to meet you.

And now, without further ado, let's get on with the wedding vows:

Today, I Mad Hatter, take all of you to be my brides. I take you in courage and in fear; I take you in brazenness and vulnerability; I take you when you work tirelessly for change; and I take you when you must rest and can work no more. I take you in all the life cycles of caring and social responsibility and I pledge in return to give to you, to my community, to my country, and to the world the best that I have to offer even when that best seems more like second- or third- best to my own eyes.

OK, enough of that, let's open the gifts. We received so many that I have been positively overwhelmed. Jen has been busy writing the thank you cards. The remaining brides at this bash are as follows:

Andrea of a Garden of Nna Mmoy: A Long History of Everything
Deezee of Confessional Highway has offered up the Wedding Toast
Cinnamon Gurl of Write About Here: Christmas in a Handbasket
Oh the Joys: Weddings, Justice and More Poo
Jenny at Mama Drama: Always a Bridesmaid
Bub and Pie: Wedding Gift
De Aufiero at Sober Briquette: Wedding Song
Chani at Thailand Gal: Three Deaths and Universal Health Care and Bread and Roses
Jo at Insane Mom...formerly known as...ME: National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women
QT at Can We Kick the Bar Here?: Wedding Bells
Acumamakiki at Sticking to the Point: The Wedding Present
KC at Where's My Cape: Colorless
Mommy off the Record: Food for Thought
Em at Three Countries, Three Kids: When the Lights Go Out
Julie at the Ravin' Picture Maven: Day of Reconciliation
CrazyMumma: Taking Rosie home to lunch
Mother-Woman: Kim Family
Swamp Witch at Anecdotes, Antidotes and Anodes: A Wedding Gift for Jen
Jill at Not So Sage Wisdom: Harm Reduction
Lori at Momish: Week in rewind: The Hardcore Activist
Mouse at the Mouse's Nest: Sneaking into the Back
Carrie at Third Time's A Charm
Tabba of Stretched to the Limit: Wedding Gift
Mamaloves: Someone's getting married and Strong enough for a man
Nancy of Mom, Ma'am, Me: The Gift of Health
Meno with a late wedding present
Juli at Fresh and Sassy with Let's Be Real
Sandra at Sunshine Scribe: December 6th

As you go out to read these posts, I encourage you all to mingle. The effort that has been put into these gifts is astonishing and it merits comment, debate, and enthusiastic acknowledgement. In the next day or two I will make it around to all the gifts to sip chamapagne and engage in light or weighty conversation as the situation demands. It would've be nice to put a disposable camera on each table so that we could all share those spontaneous pictures, but hey, this is the blogoshpere so no dice; besides those disposable cameras likely aren't that good for the environment anyway.

In addition to all these posts, I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge a few of the gifts that were spinkled like golden stars throughout my comments over this past week--specks of light to illuminate the despair.

On Tuesday when I wrote about the need to support the hungry in our communities by supporting our local food banks, Beck mentioned that she always includes a cake mix, icing, and candles in her food bank hampers so that no kid will be denied a birthday cake. I was floored by this insightful and sensitive gesture and will now incorporate her idea into my giving.

On Wednesday when I remembered the Montreal massacre and the issue of violence against women, Sunshine Scribe popped over to say hello. Her post that day offered a long list of actions we can all take in our communities to help ameliorate this issue.

My Thursday post about Human Trafficking left me reeling in despair because I could see no concrete way whatsoever of tackling the issue--that is until Andrea gave me this link to an article in the Toronto Star outlining a private member's bill on this issue that a Manitoba MP plans to bring to Parliament. Now I will lobby my MP (who is socially conscious and for whom I have a good deal of respect) to monitor the progress of this bill and to work to make sure it is well-worded and well-supported.

On Friday when my post touched on the single worst pandemic in human history--the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa, I was met by comments from Cinnamon Gurl and Not So Sage Wisdom discussing the small steps they, themselves, have taken to help.

What glorious bounty: all this discussion, all these contacts with caring women, all these gifts.

On the subject of gifts, I come bearing one of my own. I designed it for Jen and will continue to care for it with Jen but I present it to all of you. Allow me to introduce the Just Post for a Just World Button.



Once a month, on the anniversary of our wedding, Jen and I will put up a list of all the posts that have been nominated by other bloggers for this award over the course of the month. The nominated posts will will receive the code to add this button to their side-bar. Please keep us in mind in your reading and nominate as many posts as you wish in any given month.

I created this button because, despite all the posting activity this wedding has generated, I am well aware that writing about issues of social justice is nothing new to this corner of the blogosphere. I am always reading posts that move me or spur me to action. It was this reality, after all, that led Her Bad Mother to rally the troops back in September. Social justice has been, is, and will be an ongoing concern for all of us. Because of this Jen and I would like to see a clearinghouse of sorts that can point people in the direction of such posts. So please, please as you read keep this award token in mind.

Ooooo and from what I understand, Jen has a gift for me too and what a lovely gift it is. In fact, it is so lovely that I will endeavour to match her commitment.

And now, thanks to a recommendation from Bub and Pie, I think we should all eat Mad Hatter cake:

Here's to you all.


Now that all speeches have been made and all toasts have been sung, I invite you to dance. My first spin on the floor will be with Jen my blushing bride.

You asked for it, you get it: girl (brain) on girl (brain) action

After that I have a hankering to get down to Dexy's Midnight Runners with Bub and Pie but then my dance card is open. Please, please join me.