A Hindlimish Marriage (or whatever you want to call it): Keeping the Faith in the Sunday Styles

This week doctors married other doctors, a Colbert/SNL animation producer married the Sesame Street producer she had an inappropriate crush on throughout her marriage (bringing to mind the questions that I raised in last Sunday's post on how previous relationship are portrayed in the announcements), and Herbert Hoover's great-granddaughter (and Fox News Commentator) married Giuliani's former deputy director for Policy. In other words, it was just another week in the New York Times.

Now, I'm not saying I didn't enjoy reading these, I just didn't get the warm fuzzy Sunday evening feeling (usually accompanied by spilling some of my tea in my lap- maybe it's because I ran out of decaf tea?) of reading about a real sounding romance. Maybe I'm just no longer interested in romances that begin with 5:30am jokes on medical rounds or when someone is involved with someone else. It's weeks like this that I get really excited to read between the lines. That's how I found this little number. It had me at hello: "Heather Ilene Silber and Nicholas Nafis Mohamed were married Saturday evening in Boston in the Grand Ballroom of Taj Boston, a hotel. James C. Gibney, a justice of the peace in Massachusetts, performed the ceremony, which incorporated Hindu, Jewish and Muslim traditions." Amazing! Immediately reminded of the Sikh Muslim Catholic bartender with Jewish-in-laws in Keeping the Faith who counsels Brian (the priest) on his crush on Anna (the girl) who is in love with Jake (the Rabbi). Yes, I am totally biased when it comes to interfaith/interracial romances, but there's something about the incorporation of all that into a ceremony that warms my heart. Muslim-Jew? Whoa. Hindu-Muslim? um, right on. Jindu? Awesome. But all three? That's really something to write to the New York Times about.

There's much read to between the lines here and I won't ruin your reading with my interpretation. But I think that's what's great about these shorter announcements; they don't ruin your imagination with banal back stories. While they may be less narrative, they allow the ceremony to speak for itself, giving you a glimpse at the real love behind veil.