The Coral Street Pier

Today's offering, like it or not, will be a few thoughts on romance. My brother is getting married today, and that is a grand occasion. Furthermore, this day is also my 273rd monthaversery. (If you struggle with math, that's 23.75 years) So this seemed like a fitting time to encourage us all to cherish our relationships and keep working at them through all the seasons of life. A wedding day is certainly romantic. However, it takes a great deal of effort to keep the home fires burning brightly for 23, or 40 or 52, years. Lots of metaphors work here: the training of an athlete, the tending of a garden, the maintenance of a car, the care of a rosebush. The point is that we need to keep being unselfish and creative, even when we don't feel like it ... perhaps even when there might not be any quid quo pro in the area of reciprocation. The secret to loving someone is simply making the conscious choice to be the kind of person that you hope the other person will be. That's the good old "golden rule," and it's contagious. My best wishes today to my brother and his new bride, and a hope that each of us may discover the path to a happily ever after.

The Coral Street Pier
How many years now has it been
Since we stood on the Coral Street pier
How many memories have we shared
Since the ones that we shared here
Oh, how our lives have changed since then
Since that evening in June long ago
Marriage and children, family and friends
All the memories that we alone know
Tides rose and fell at the Coral Street pier
The summers and winters have flown
Oblivious to what started back here
And the happiness we have known
The warm breeze still blows down the bay as it did
Caressing the flags and the sails
The water still dances its dance with the shore
As it did when we leaned on these rails
There are fishermen here, on the Coral Street pier
And they get an occasional bite
But the luckiest man who caught anything here
Was me, on that long ago night
The sights and the sounds and the way that I feel
Haven't changed in a decade and more
But I still like to wander back here now and then
To make sure that it's just like before
Life has been good to us, I must admit
Bringing happiness year after year
Since that night when the stars were shining so bright
When we stood on the Coral Street pier
By Frank Carpenter ©