When Lauren asked me to write something to read here today, she asked that I speak universally about love and marriage, subjects that we all have access to, thoughts about, memories that inform our beliefs on. In forming my own thoughts, I kept coming back to my grandparents and what their marriage taught me about love.

It is not because I was burned by a bigger world. There was never anything to give up on, except a marriage, and that was less about giving up than about acknowledging a truth there all along. The world has scared me but it scares me less now. It might be because I am older and will only get older than I am now. It might be because my parents are older and will only get older than they are now.