We’re having a party today. It’s to celebrate Mrs K and I reaching 100. 40 years each on the planet and 20 years together.
Today is about family and friends. Some can’t be here today which is a shame, but it accentuates in a way the fact that some of us can during these circumstances. Victoria is in lockdown again, borders are closing and in the midst of that we jumped on a plane to avoid 28 hours of driving.
We haven’t seen the my nieces, brother and sister for 9 months and it’s been hard for all of us. Moving away to Adelaide was one thing, not being able to come home has been another. Luckily we’ve been able to make it to Wagga – and fingers crossed we can return home.
Together is my theme for today.
Living in isolation has really bought home for me the need for connection. I classify myself as an introvert – one who is happy to be open and social, but I find that incredibly draining and too often performative. I need downtime to recharge and prepare myself to do it again. But isolation is something very different. Being cut off from everyone and everything has been incredibly difficult. Life on Zoom has not been rewarding, it’s a hard fucking grind most days. I missed the physicality of other people. The nonverbal posturing and aural presence people have and being able to interact in that space.
I wrote some words for today’s party …
100 Years
On behalf of Mrs K, Ms A, and from the bottom of my heart, thanks everyone for coming.
We’re here to celebrate a couple of milestones – Mrs K’s 40th, mine is in a weeks time and in March we marked being together for 20 years. So 100 years all up, which is a been pretty decent innings.
I feel incredibly lucky to have found someone that I’ve been able to spend so much time with. Mrs K has been my rock and my support through some really tough times. She helped me grow and mature to the point where I actually felt capable of bringing a life into this world. She then gifted me by carrying this beautiful girl into the world, and she really is the best of both of us.
Over the last year we made a pretty big change with the move to Adelaide, where we have found a place that really fits us. It’s come at the expense distance and missing all of you – and over the past couple of months that’s been more noticeable and challenging than ever before. So it is such a relief to see you all and it fills us with happiness that you’re all here.
I don’t usually do speeches. But I did want to say a quick something.
These last 20 years have been a big deal. I found an amazing woman who I just clicked with. She got me, and she put up with my quirks. I believe we really do compliment and enhance each other. We’ve held each other up and taken turns to carry the other through times that were tough or when we just got too tired.
A few years ago I was introduced to the term entropy. It’s a function of the universe that essentially tears stuff apart in order to gain an equilibrium. Everything we see today will eventually be pulled apart at an atomic level, and then be recombined into something else. It’s what gives us life and death and the spinning of the stars and planets. And while it’s a little unsettling, I actually find it quite comforting, because it means that our very existence is actually an act of defiance. Us being alive, here and now is in effect taking a stand against the universe itself.
And for that reason I want to celebrate being together. While what we have on this planet during our lifetime is only temporary, the fact is that we have stayed together. We have defied the odds, even when the universe has seemed to go out of its way to try and pull us apart. And while there was that one night we broke up after drinking 2 litres of wine and probably getting too much Mediterranean sun, we have worked to stay together. We may only be a blip in the history of space and time, but it’s a slightly bigger blip because we are together.
But thank you all too. Because without you and your support we would never have found each other or found a way to stay together. So with all that said. Here’s to the universe, and a slightly bigger blip.
Heart | Soul | Machine 