Tag Archives for love

Our humanist wedding

In 2008 Melissa and I were living in London and planning to get married. We are both atheist and neither of us wanted a religious ceremony, but we did want to share the experience with our family and friends. We wanted to get married in Ireland (where Melissa is from), but the residency requirements for the marriage license made it impossible for us to do the legal bit there. In the end we decided to get a quick legal marriage in Lewisham registry office, witnessed by just our parents, followed by a celebratory wedding ceremony in Ireland some months later.

Freed from making the legal oaths part of our ceremony and not wanting to use a priest, Continue reading →

Mary

Pick a number to tell your story, a single measure to summarise your life’s worth. What’s it to be? Height? Weight? How about your salary? For some, that would do it nicely. Most would feel cheapened. How about your personal tally of wives or husbands? Or maybe longevity captures it? Up to a point, perhaps, until someone asks what you did with all those years.

The Tiger That Isn’t (page 88). Blastland & Dilnot, 2008.

If one number could possibly summarise Mary’s life’s worth it would probably be the number of people who attended her funeral. Continue reading →