Sitting in my office at my desk, I just overheard Alexa ask my wife, who was walking past her in the living room, if she wanted to update an order in the Amazon shopping cart for some kind of vitamins for our dogs. Kim yelled “No” on her way out the door to take Lucy outside. Across the street, the neighbors with the pool have classic rock playing, and I’m sure he’s got a cooler of beers out there on the patio. If I still drank or went swimming, I’d probably be over there right now. Next door, our old house is for sale. It’s a long story, but yeah, we used to live next door. Sold it. Moved seventy-five feet to the west, and now our old house is for sale. It’s on Facebook marketplace. It’s a busy world, even if you barely leave the house.

Meanwhile, I’m finally settling into a rhythm of typing at my keyboard.

I don’t type while online. For me, it’s distracting. Plus, there’s a part of me firmly convinced if I put a thousand or so words down, with the cloud looming overhead, that my precious data will be pilfered by online plagiarists. Right, wrong, or indifferent; if I’m on the word processor, the machine itself is offline.

Everything previous happened in the last fifteen minutes and comes on the heels of a busier than usual week. I got a new truck, finished one project at work and then started another. I rushed around like normal. I also performed a wedding ceremony– for my son and his bride.

The last part, I didn’t mean to downplay it, was the highlight of the week. Everything from this time last year, rushing into Monday of this week, straight on into the rehearsal dinner on Friday night, was building up to their big day. No, I don’t have a church. Yes, I am really an ordained Minister.

They asked me last year if I would Officiate their Wedding?

Without hesitation I said, “Of course, I’d love to.”

Like I mentioned, in the days and weeks leading up to the event, we had to go get pictures, have a few dinners here and there, along with all the other stuff that goes along with weddings.

Anyhow, after all the planning, ordering stuff, buying the presents, designing menus, my daughter-in-law and her mother were done. That is, they were done. The wedding is planned out, and everything’s in place. Friday night rolls up, and it’s time for the rehearsal. Now, it’s my turn.

Without boring everyone to death with my wedding ceremony, although it is a good one, I’ll tell you that I was happy the moment had arrived. I was ready to step up, let ‘em say “I do”, present them as Mr. and Mrs., and cheer them off down the road of wedded bliss.

I get to the rehearsal on Friday afternoon. We’re all standing up on the little platform at the wedding place, and mind you, it’s an outdoor venue. Plus, it was just the rehearsal. Naturally, everyone got out their phones, I did too. Immediately, a strange pall was cast across the group.

We had absolutely no cell service. Zero. Nada. Nothing.

The wedding venue was only about twenty-five miles south of Bloomington. Still, there were no bars on the phone, no emails coming in, no Insta being updated… Twitter? Yeah right. You couldn’t even text.

The result? I heard some mild complaining, but nothing earth shattering. Everyone, including myself, seemed to dwell on the isolation, the absence of Siri and of no outside notifications coming in for a minute or so, then it was back to the task at hand. We all looked around, smiled, and got to work. Practicing for a ceremony where two people would be coming together, united in marriage, before friends and family.

We went through the rehearsal. After two or three times of walking in and out of the little outdoor amphitheater, of discussing musical changeups with the musicians, we all felt like it was good to go. We had a small dinner. Everyone went home.

Fast forward to the next day, Saturday. It was Wedding Day! The wedding party got there early, maybe a little too early, as is usually the case. The girls went to their little room to dress for each other while guys stood around, smoking… sneaking a drink or two when nobody’s looking. All the while, we already understood the whole “no cell phone service” thing, so it wasn’t a big deal. When the photographer asked for anyone who had a phone in their pocket to please remove it, in case it showed through in the pictures, nobody had a phone in their pockets. Everyone had left them in the car, or up in the dressing room. We didn’t need our phones cuz they didn’t work.

The Big Day, Minus Social Media

Now, remember, everything up until Thursday had been recorded, photographed, and sent out via live feed to all social media. Yet, on the day before and the day of the ceremony, there weren’t any posts “in real time”. I held up emails for a day. Everyone was offline, if only for a few hours.

It was the nicest few hours I’ve spent in recent memory. Oh, I’m sure that some of the guests took pictures, even if they were offline, but not very many were posted. Sunday morning came around. My Daughter-in-Law had changed her name, which was cool, but her feed wasn’t over-run with hundreds of pics. Matter of fact, there weren’t many pictures posted by anyone. As far as I was concerned, the only pictures that were taken were by the photographer. I suppose we’ll have to wait a few days to see those, and that’s o.k.

People at the wedding reception sat and talked. They danced. I heard singing, and laughter. It was nice to see people, especially during a global pandemic that has promoted isolation, acting like they used to… as in, acting normal. I say normal carefully and mean it as in people interacting with each other. In the present day, “Normally” would mean that everyone would’ve been sitting by themselves, with their faces buried in their devices, conversation blocked by earbuds.

It wasn’t like that. Instead, I didn’t hear a single person complain during the wedding about not having phone service. Towards the end of the evening, I wondered if the owners of the venue had set up some kind of blocker, maybe an electronic jammer of cell phone signals? If they did, I’m not so sure it wasn’t a bad idea.  

My son and his girl were married in front of friends and family, with no outside interruptions. Nobody’s phone went off during the exchanging of rings. The music was an acoustic guitar accompanied by a piano. A lovely ceremony. Afterwards, we had a great time with more music and dancing. I left a little before midnight. Normally, I don’t stay out that late, but what the hell, I was enjoying myself.

This morning, they took off on their Honeymoon, heading down to South Carolina.

I expect to start getting live photos from the beach by tomorrow afternoon on Facebook and Instagram.

I kinda wish that I wouldn’t.

I’m thinking it would be nice for them to enjoy each other for a few days. Away from everyone’s live feed… Just to be together. Yeah, that’d be nice.