That time I went to a Scottish wedding

Today's post will be brief. I'm writing it while taking a break from doing some other work that's due soon. The flower in the picture was taken when I went to Glasgow to attend my friends’ wedding. I talked about booze yesterday, so I won't even go into the heroic amounts we drank that night. Instead, will talk about how amazing it was to be there.

I know that my description of the people and the events are once slice of a moment out of millions upon millions of moments in their lives. But it's at that point where our lives intersected. So, my impression of them is the impression that they gave me when we met. The bride and groom were people I had encountered in Tokyo while working at Summer Sonic as an interpreter. From 1999 or until about 2017, I worked at Fuji Rock festival every summer as an interpreter. One year, Summer Sonic was short and I was asked to help out. Phil was the sound engineer and Cara was the tour manager. It was her first tour to manage by herself and she was quite nervous but also very capable. Her job was extra challenging because she was dealing with an artist who had a diva like personality. Despite all of her pressures, she always showed me professionalism and kindness. Sometimes, I think Phil thought she was a little too kind. It seems he had admired her from afar but hadn't quite worked up the courage to make his move. Seeing how chummy Cara and I were made him feel as if he had to take a stand. That's my interpretation of events anyway. Cara and Phil, if either of you guys are reading this, you can correct me.

One of the things that was most striking about Cara happened the moment I told her that I wanted to visit London. She immediately said to me “you can come and stay at my place”. She was very serious when she said it. She didn't mean anything romantic by it. She was simply being a kind person who was offering a place for me to stay to reduce my costs while I was in London. That kind of generosity is what I saw in her.

Like I said I don't know anything about her life or Phil’s live outside of the moments that I spent with them, but those are the moments that mean something to me. Both Cara and Phil where people who seemed to go out of their way to make others feel welcomed. When I went to their wedding in Scotland, I was surrounded their family and friends who also went out of their way to make me feel welcomed. It was like I was a long-lost relative that had finally come home. Cara’s mother took me around and personally introduced me to all of her friends. When she heard that I was into doing poetry readings she insisted that I read poems for all of her friends. She even made me record one on video. It felt like she was my mother, and she was proud of her son. It was the most bizarre and wonderful thing I had ever experienced. Cara’s father looked a little more skeptical. I could see in his eyes that he was wondering whether or not I had had relations with his daughter. I had not. I was simply there because I had been swept up in her genuine kindness and also Phil's. He also introduced me to all of his friends and made sure that I was well taken care of. Although I was the only American there and the only black person there, I never felt for one second like I was an outsider.

I dance to Scottish wedding tunes, drank Scottish booze and had the full experience of a Scottish wedding. I even had a Scottish hangover the next morning while eating a full Scottish breakfast. The wedding was held in a beautiful old castle near a Lake. Although it was misty and bit cold, I felt nothing but warmth that whole weekend.