This past week my partner and I met with a wedding invitation designer (check out Antonia Designs, outstanding designs and an amazing person).

Now before we met with Antonia I would have ranked my interest in wedding invitations in the bottom one percent of all that interests me ever in my life.  I do not have an eye for what’s beautiful (well except for when it comes to people).

Plus, I have never liked milestone celebrations very much.  The birthday song always scared the heck out of me as a child and most weddings I have attended are too long and too sappy.

So as my partner and Antonia discussed every detail from font, size, color, paper, unique designs, I just tried to enjoy two people engaged in the creative process.

Then they hooked me, and hooked me bad!

On the opposite side of the invitation they asked me to create a 10-20 word inscription highlighting what marriage equality means to us.

So as I write this blog I am quite “wordless” . . . a rare phenomenon indeed.

This seems like an enormous responsibility.  I realize how every same-sex marriage ceremony is a statement beyond love and commitment.  But I was just hoping I would not have to articulate it as such for every invitee to read.

So here it goes, three choices, off the top of my head, with no editing . . .

1. Marriage is a universal human right between two people who are committed to one another forever.

2. Thanks to everyone who fought so hard for freedom and equality.

3. Thanks to everyone who fights so hard for equal rights and responsibilities under the law of the United States of America.

The first is banal, and the second not bold enough.

I received a strong emotional reaction from the third option.  It was when I wrote “United States of America” that I choked up.  Never in my life did I think the “long arc of freedom” would transcend over LGBT community.  I once assumed the only marriage I could “have” would be a “commitment ceremony” in my own country or an actual marriage in an enlightened European country.

So why does the addition of “United States of America” touch me so strongly?

Since the 1980s I feel as if crack-pot extreme right wingers have co-opted patriotism (and from a posture of fear and not pride) without much of a fight from the rest of us.  I love my country, a country I lived ten adult years outside of so that I could make that sound judgment.  For a long time it was hard to feel patriotic as an LGBT person.  When you are left out there is little to celebrate.  But slowly and surely that is no longer the case!

I ask my clients each day how the decisions they are making are helping them grow and learn.  Well at the macro level, when in comes to equality, we are all growing and learning in the USA.

Never has the design of anything meant more to me than this darn invitation.  Every wedding is a celebration and I have learned that mine just became a lot more meaningful to celebrate.

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If you have any questions about coaching please feel free to contact me at scott@kineticcoaching.co, and remember I always offer a complimentary 30-45 minute session to prospective clients to determine if we want to work together.