"Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup."
Before a recent wedding I waited with our organist, Doug, and we chatted about the various trends we have seen for wedding ceremonies which come and go in waves, apparently on the shores of souls.
Back in the 1980's it seemed as though every other couple wanted these words from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran to be read during their wedding ceremonies. I am partial to the bible myself so my compromise was to let someone else read them apart from the scripture readings. Mercifully I don't get asked for this one anymore. I find it all pretty goopy.
A recent article in the BBC news service took a look at Gibran, although I'm not sure why because it wasn't attached to an anniversary.
"Many people turned away from the establishment of the Church to Gibran," says Professor Juan Cole, historian of the Middle East at the University of Michigan who has translated several of Gibran's works from Arabic. "He offered a dogma-free universal spiritualism as opposed to orthodox religion, and his vision of the spiritual was not moralistic. In fact, he urged
people to be non-judgmental." Despite the immense popularity of his writing, or perhaps because of it, The Prophet was panned by many critics in the West who thought it simplistic, naive and lacking in substance.
people to be non-judgmental." Despite the immense popularity of his writing, or perhaps because of it, The Prophet was panned by many critics in the West who thought it simplistic, naive and lacking in substance.
Curious that the requests have dried up in this "spiritual rather than religious" time we live in, although fewer couples get married in a church anyway. Do any of you remember readings from The Prophet at weddings? Did you include one in your ceremony? Never heard of him before?
Hadn't heard of him, but having now read this excerpt, I can see why it died out in the 80's.
ReplyDeleteMust admit I have Gibrans books. I don't really find his words much different than 1 Corinthians 13;4, which you hear at every wedding. Maybe more people are writing their own vows these days? Haven't been to many weddings recently.
ReplyDeleteI picked up his book at a yard sale but haven't read it. I do intend to read it though. Someday. A friend once gave me a handwritten note inside a card, with one of his verses in it. I still have the card if that friend happens to be reading this.
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