Beautiful Day

THE NOTEBOOK, PAGE 10

Readings

When Daddy and I were in our late twenties, there was one six-month period when we attended eight weddings, and it nearly bankrupted us. I was a bridesmaid in three, and your father was an usher in two. At nearly every one of these weddings, the readings were Corinthians 13 and a selection from Kahlil Gibran���s The Prophet.

I beg you, avoid these choices. If you use Corinthians 13, you will hear a collective groan.

I am, as you know, a fan of song lyrics. You are the only one of my children who inherited my taste in music. Your sister and brothers listened to the punk stuff-the Dead Kennedys, the Violent Femmes, the Sex Pistols, Iggy and the Stooges, the Ramones-oh, how I wearied of the Ramones! But you were a Rolling Stones fan from a young age, you loved Springsteen, Clapton, and Steppenwolf, especially “Magic Carpet Ride.” Remember Halloween in sixth grade when all your friends dressed up like Courtney Love or the girl in the bumblebee costume from the Blind Melon video, and you went as Janis Joplin? They made fun of you, and you came home from trick-or-treating a little weepy, but I explained that you couldn’t help it. You were my daughter.

This is a long way of saying that song lyrics often make good readings. Try the Beatles. No one has ever gone wrong with the Beatles.