Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Yesterday we visited the marriage license bureau. In the waiting area we saw one nervous young couple with a basinette, several rural-looking folks in a group, and an older couple. "I've got the death certificate right here!" the woman announced, a little too proudly, when asked how her first marriage ended.

The lady at the counter was friendly for a government worker. I wanted to ask her questions: Do you get couples in here smelling like booze, and making out while they're filling in the application? Have you ever watched a relationship dissolve in front of your eyes before you finish the paperwork? And finally - hey, do you guys keep a file back there for bigamists?

Some people are laughably ill-equipped for marriage - you can see it from miles away. But don't bother telling them because the human heart doesn't like to listen. Others, against the odds, are surprised by each other and (just as importantly) themselves as they contribute to the balance - arranged, rearranged, and reinvented by love and patience over the years.

We brought the camera. The government worker snapped our picture.