Introduction. Leah talk

Transcription

1 Introduction Welcome everyone to Sammy and Mike s wedding. My name is Leah Ginnivan, and I am a marriage celebrant and it is a privilege and joy to be officiating today. Everyone here today is special to them, whether you ve known one of them their whole lives, or known them more recently, so thank you for being here today. And before we begin today, I would like to acknowledge the Taungurung people of the Kulin nation whose land we are on today, and elders past and present. After the ceremony today we will hang out here for a bit and then move back to the venue, but our MC for the evening Jamie will explain all that. On a housekeeping note, could you mute your phones and hold off on snaps during the ceremony - we have some roaming photographers who will capture all the precious memories you need. Leah talk I was so happy to be asked to be Sammy and Mike s celebrant today. I ve known these guys since we were all at ANU together. I would like to speak for a moment about Sammy and Mike, and to include some of what the two of them and I chatted about as we prepared for the wedding. Sammy and Mike are getting married because they are and want to continue being life partners. They have already built so much of a shared world, and a part of today is recognising the strong and sustaining partnership that they have created. And it s a time for us to come together as their family and friends and show our love for these very beautiful people and to reflect back some of generosity and enthusiasm that makes them so special, together and separately. I know that as their community we feel proud to support them as they continue to build a relationship that reflects who they are as people and who they are together. They met while they were both hot property young scientists at ANU, just over eight years ago now, and there are many friends here today from that time. After a brief meeting at a work party, over the following few weeks they slowly got to know one another from their neighbouring labs, dropping in to chat, share music and they started seeing each other more outside of work.

2 I remember vividly my first experience of their trademark dynamic, visiting Sammy while she was writing her thesis and taking a break in the courtyard which was home to two shingleback lizards (Tiliqua rugosa). A gentle, faun-like man was extracting parasites from under a female s scales using a pair of tweezers with deep focus and gentleness. They had a brief discussion about the pregnancy status, more formally gravidity of the shingleback in question, and Mike and Sammy jointly removed the ticks from this desert reptile and set her free. As is the case for so many Canberra couples of the era, their love was sealed with a kiss on the floor of Cube nightclub, and then more soberly with a pash in the mist of an ANU greenhouse. Sammy recalls that some initial concerns about Mike s ¾ cargo pants and steel cap boots aesthetic quickly faded in the face of his creative, meticulous and beautiful messages. In Sammy s words, Mike was undemanding and sweet and easy to talk to, and he seemed genuinely interested in the weird stuff I was interested in. The feeling was very mutual. Nature, enthusiasm and life appreciation Any of us who has spent time with Sammy and Mike together know that their deep and intense appreciation of nature and an enthusiasm for life in all its forms is a source of shared joy for them both. I feel that seeing one of them get excited at the other getting excited about a home experiment on insect hatching is perhaps the purest of all human experiences. In Mike s words, my own joy in nature is magnified by her presence. My examples are myriad but range from the very large (witnessing the Grand Canyon), to medium sized (dropping F-bombs in South Africa when she spotted meerkats from the car), to small (watching iridescent parasitoid wasps emerge from praying mantis ootheca). As Sammy s sister Isabelle notes, Samantha is the only teenager I've ever known to keep a diary purely to write down her daily ant farm observations. Mike is the only other person I know who would have done the same. Former housemates vividly recall the time that Sammy had a tarantula posted to her in the mail which one day escaped through an air hole,and the two of them had to conduct a systemic inch by inch surveillance of

3 her bedroom until it was located ( true love and support right there ). [Incidentally, Spides is now over 5 years old and still going strong!] In Mike s words, when the energy of her obsessive attention is channeled somewhere within the wide realm of our overlapping interests, I am irresistibly inspired by her. For example, in the early days of our relationship, I was infected by her deep passion for stick insects and their husbandry. So much so that I was motivated to collect and smuggle home a Kakadu stick insect for her. Unfortunately it didn t make it home due to an incident with a Landcruiser. To Sammy, Mike has also been an inspiration - it s to him she owes her passion for propagation of native and exotic plants, which are currently filling up their home in Hadfield. In this aspect of their relationship, there is no insipid balancing out the enthusiasm of the other - Mike and Sammy spur each other on in their irreverent but unironic appreciation of the world. And the shared world they have built together is joyful, ever-growing, and self-renewing. Stick insects, snake feeding, fungus foraging, orchid hunting, music, camping, parasitism, improvising songs narrating their day to day life, propagating exotic plant life, conducting advanced biochemistry, and the weird world of celebrity dog instagram. It s all part of it. For friends and family, as incomprehensible as parts of this world may be at times, being around them makes us see the world as the inexhaustible source of wonder and fun that it is. I think all of us are the richer for being included in this shared life. Things that are great about one another From their early days of seeing each other, Samantha and Michael s relationship has been a generous one. In Michael s words, Sammy has a huge capacity for love and nurturing. It s something she channels into plants, pets, her friends, her family, and me. She s funny, with a deeply absurdist streak. And on the odd occasion that her antics aren t genuinely humorous, her capability for making herself laugh is funny in and of itself. Sammy holds to her convictions strongly, and with the courage to voice them. Her ideologies of equality, fairness, and compassion are deeply thought out, sensitive, and enlightened. She has a scientific mind: curious, and critical. Sammy says that

4 time spent with Mike is filled with the easiest conversation and most comfortable silences that I've ever known. He never makes me feel judged for expressing myself. M is patient and generous, and never boastful or dominating. He has a weird, wonderful, and inclusive sense of humour Sammy loves the way he cares for all creatures and thinks about others (sometimes, over-thinks). He is inquisitive, logical, and analytical, but also has a creative streak that shows regularly in his use of language. He's also driven to selfimprovement, and Sammy observes that he has become even more patient and self-reflective over time. She admires this and it inspires her to be better too. Partnership Sammy and Mike have got through some hard times too; navigating the challenges of academic and scientific careers, and long stints of separation across several continents. In Mike s words, one of the hardest times was probably the first time I went away to South Africa. There was stress on the relationship then, but we coaxed it through, until Sammy could come and visit me at the end of the 6 months. I remember being so excited the day I picked her up from Durban airport. I couldn t stop smiling while I sat alone in the waiting area. They then shared a life-changing trip across South Africa, dancing in the dust across the Karoo and sharing the mountains with baboons. Mike and Sammy don t always agree, but there is space in their relationship for this. In Mike s words, we have so rarely disagreed on anything actually important. When we have, we are both patient listeners, generous to one another s viewpoint, and forgiving. Each of them feels deeply the other s total and complete support, and trusts they both can and will compromise and work things out. Moving on Through the last eight years together, they have steadily grown in appreciation for each other s worth. Sammy says I can't begin to express how lucky I feel to have had these opportunities and this beautiful person to share them with. I don't want to get greedy with too many hopes for the future when we've already been

5 so lucky and shared so much. I hope we continue to live well (by that I mean not too boringly or selfishly) and support one another through the inevitable challenges for as long as we possibly can (vom but it's true) Mike and Sammy clearly have found that in their partnership they can live well. And today is a celebration of that partnership, love, enthusiasm and support, and of two people who bring out the good in the world and each other. I will now ask Barbara (Samantha s mother) to do a short reading. Reading Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue, a wonderful living side by side can grow, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole against the sky. Rainer Maria Rilke