Saturday, February 5, 2011

Ms. Annie... Marriage on the Rocks again

Two days ago I was married to Linda, yesterday Ann, and then last night we decided it would be Ms. Annie. If people change, why shouldn't their names change too?

Then today I received an email from the one living witness. He said that he couldn't have been a witness because he hadn't arrived in Illinois from Canada until the next month in September 1969 (we were married Aug. 4th).

Today, in a dharma talk, the priest talked about how, in sub-atomic physics, a particle can be in two places at once. I'm assuming that, because we are made of particles, we too can be of two places at once.

My friend thinks he knows a lot about science. I know nothing, having barely passed most of my science courses. But I suspect that they (scientists) really know very little about anything. Every generation has felt that they understood and that the last generation did not. Why is that not still the case?

As they say, it is all a big mystery.

So now I'll send my friend a .pdf of the certificate that he signed and see if he'll change his mind about which country he was in 41 years ago. Suppose that he can prove that he really was in Canada. Then what will we do?

In case you haven't realized it, this is mostly about what do we really know (very little?). We take a whole lot on faith and on the accuracy of our memories. I did need to prove that we were married, and for now, that task has been accomplished unless my friend talks to the Austin officials.

Then our marriage will really be on the rocks.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It has taken me about 75 years to get used to my name, I would hate to have it change now. H.

Who's in the world?

Xiushan said, "What can you do about the world?" Dizang said, "What do you call the world?"