[KB] Burkean wedding

[Stan Lindsay]

Clarke,
Very interesting!  But, there was another Burkean wedding that I attended.  It was my son's wedding, and the circular concept (ouroboros) of Burkean and Aristotelian entelechy was featured.  (I know, because I wrote the ceremony with the Bride and Groom's approval.)  Here is part of the text of that wedding:
To [Groom]:  [Groom], do you have a ring as a symbol of love for your bride?


Thewedding ring is a perfect circle.  Theuniverse is comprised of circles.  Aseach fireworks display typically explodes into a circular image, the theme songof Epcot’s daily fireworks display states poetically:  “Our dreams begin another thousand circlesround the sun.”  We understand a “circleround the sun” to refer to a year, 365 days. On ____[one year after wedding date]____, you will complete your first circle round thesun, together.  But, then, since thewedding ring is a circle, a new circle will immediately start again.  Not only, however, does the earth circle the sun, but other planets do, as well.  The “thousand circles” may refer to amillennium, but each millennium is exponentially compounded by the thousandcircles of other planets.  How manymillennia has the earth existed?  Andisn’t every decade, century, and millennium also a circle of sorts?  For that matter, while the earth is circlingthe sun once, it is also rotating in a circle on its axis 365 times.  These are 365 additional circles to factorin.  And once, every 28 days, the earth’srelationship to its moon creates another circle—a month.  Remember also that the sun is only one ofbillions of stars, all of which have their own circling planets, and thoseplanets, their moons.  The number ofcircles in the universe is mind-boggling. Don’t forget that these stars all seem to be circling within their owngalaxies.  The Milky Way is only onecircular galaxy, with countless circles occurring within.  Have you considered enough circles?  We are not finished.  Now, consider the atom with its nucleus, andcircling protons and neutrons, and try to envision the number of circles in theuniverse, since every planet, moon, star, asteroid, and meteor is comprised ofcountless atoms.  This is what I meanwhen I say the universe is comprised of circles.
 
[Groom],as you place the ring on the finger of your bride, remember that every episodein your life together—whether happy or sad—will have a beginning, a middle, andan end (like a circle).  We get throughmarried life not only by living year by year, but also month by month, day by day.  Repeat after me:  WITH THIS RING I THEE WED IN THE NAME OF THEFATHER AND THE SON AND THE HOLY SPIRIT.


 

 

 

 
To [Bride]:  [Bride], do you have a ring as a symbol of lovefor your groom?


Besidesthose astrophysical and atomic circles to which I have just referred, there areother circles:  The theme of your weddingsuggests one:  the circle of a drop ofrain falling from the sky, running from a stream of water into a creek, theninto a river, then into the sea, after which it evaporates into the atmosphereand helps form a cloud, until it becomes too heavy and eventually condenses andbecomes a drop of rain again.  This is acircle.  A kernel of corn is planted inthe earth.  It puts forth roots, then ablade, which becomes a stalk.  The stalkdevelops leaves, tassels, and ears—composed of husks, silks, and cobs.  The cobsdevelop rows and rows of kernels.  Oncethese kernels of corn have matured, these kernels are ready to begin newcircles.  In the Animal Kingdom, whereyou and [Groom] met, there is the biological “Circle of Life as Disney’s Lion King names it.  That circle includes not only the circle of birthand maturation of every single animal, followed by another birth andmaturation, etc.  It also includes thecircle of the food chain, the circular nature of the respiratory andcirculatory systems of each biological organism, and so on.  You completed one circle that began when youand ____[Groom]____ met each other at the African Safari at AnimalKingdom____.  You dated for a long timeto make sure you knew each other well enough to commit to marriage.  That was a circle.  It ended when ____[Groom]____ proposed andyou said “yes.”  Then you started anothercircle—engagement.  That circle endstoday, as you begin a new circle—your marriage to ____each other ____.  Just as you have a ring to symbolize thatengagement circle, you now have a ring to symbolize your marriage.  Consider what these rings symbolize, as you placethe ring on the finger of your groom and repeat after me:  WITH THIS RING I THEE WED IN THE NAME OF THEFATHER AND THE SON AND THE HOLY SPIRIT. Dr. Stan A. Lindsay, Ph.D.  Teaching Professor  Professional Communication  College of Applied Studies  Florida State University  slindsay at pc.fsu.eduhttp://www.stanlindsay.com


      From: Clarke Rountree <rountrj at uah.edu>
 To: "kb at kbjournal.org" <kb at kbjournal.org> 
 Sent: Monday, October 16, 2017 12:50 PM
 Subject: [KB] Burkean wedding
   
Dear Burkelers:
I attended a wedding of my department colleague, Candice Lanius, this weekend. It was officiated by her dissertation director, Ekaterina Haskins, who pronounced it a wedding of "rhetoric nerds." (Candice's husband, Gaines Hubbell, also is a rhetorician in the English department.) 
The happy couple asked that Professor Haskins begin the ceremony with a reading of Burke's "Dialectician's Hymn." The rhetoricians in the crowd were pleased (perhaps 4 of us). I'm sure others were confused!
It's the first "Burkean" wedding I have heard about. (My wife would have killed me if I asked for a Burke reading!)
With all the depressing news lately, I thought this might be a pleasant bit of distraction..
All happiness to Candice and Gaines!

Clarke


-- 
Dr. Clarke Rountree
Professor of Communication ArtsAssociate Dean for Recruitment and Outreach for the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
243 Morton Hall
University of Alabama in Huntsville
Huntsville, AL  35899
256-824-6646
clarke.rountree at uah.edu_______________________________________________
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