This week, I explained to my Sunday school class how to count using Maya long count notation. It was an odd, silly exercise, and I tied it loosely into a discussion of annual religious celebrations and New Years resolutions and how we make sense of seasons.
I talked about Maya stone monuments and how they recorded important events on a 20-year cycle (they use a vigesimal system, after all). And that rulers were named on the monuments on the basis of how many katuns - twenty year periods - that they had been ruler.
And the real reason I did it was to let everyone in the class know that today I have been married to Kathe for 20 years.
An awful lot of water under that bridge: happy memories, exultations, struggles, sadness, and incredible joy. We completed fieldwork in Yucatan and Guatemala together. We have watched as two grandchildren came of age and turned into outstanding adults. We have both buried our fathers, and have loved on our mothers. We have both changed careers a couple of times, and found things - both inside and outside of work - that fulfill us. We have fought and loved and gotten angry and sad. Sometimes with each other, and other times with each other besides.
And we have done all of it together.
The lovely wedding took place at MARI. Thank you to those of you who were there. The students, the friends from high school and college, the family members and the friends from the art studio. Thank you for bearing witness to the love that we had - and still have - for one another. Y'all being able to participate with us on that day made it the happiest one of my life.
 |
| Dr. Matt Moriarty's wedding gift to us was a hand-drawn commemoration of the marriage of Lord La-tun and Lady Ka-te on January 8, 2000. |
Twenty years seemed like an eternity when I was 30 years old, getting married just before heading off for six months in the field. Today, it seems like just prelude.
I like that. My one-katun anniversary is prologue. We have started the book. I just can not wait to see what happens next.
Happy anniversary, Kathe. I love you.
