Is It Worth It?

At a dinner for the couple prior to the wedding, hosted by several close friends of the couple, including Emcee Colleen Golightly, at the Rude Native in Burlington, Shannon Kitchings, a dear friend of the couple, read the following:

Is it worth it?

This question has been asked of him more times than he could remember and often about things not worth remembering. This question of worth, intrinsic value, felt bigger than any man could or should put words to. We should just say hallelujah and be done with it and he would have. But being alive as he was, he could not be done while there was still doing left.

So he pondered the weight of what he had lived through. He carefully considered each factor of the equation. The measure of the sacrifices and the scale of his passion gave shape to the subject. The subject was love. And love was in flames. And the flames consumed the whole of his universe. And the ashes whispered... is it worth it?

He could only laugh in the gutted house that had been his prison. It isn't dead. Love does not die. For those who love well it is fused to their lives to be and to burn to ash again. It is the pain of loss that asks the question. The weight of living brings the question of worth. And every day that unleashes sunlight, every breath that gives dance to oxygen and carbon dioxide, every moment that gives way to another will ask it of him.

And for all time, at least all time within his grasp, the answer would be yes.