“Spinning”

If this isn’t proof that no creative work can please everyone, I don’t know what is. 

A few months ago, I officiated a wedding for two of my good friends, Cierra and Brett. It was a unique challenge to write a short speech that felt suited for their personalities while still being meaningful for the audience. 

My friends are thoughtful people. They’re not the type to make a big deal out of a wedding. In fact, in the weeks leading up to the wedding, I caught wind that the whole experience was becoming stressful for them. I wanted to make sure they took a moment during their ceremony to pause, reflect, and be present. To lead into this, I wrote a portion of my speech about how everything was “spinning,” and I used a motif of repetition to create this feeling—how the world was spinning so fast, how the wedding planning was head-spinning, how everything was “spinning…spinning… spinning.”

While I certainly didn’t expect this, it was the most complimented I’ve ever been on a speech I’ve given. The parents of the newlyweds, the bridesmaids, told friends, new friends—they all told me how much they liked it. Multiple people reached out for a copy of the speech. I was feeling pretty good about it. 

That was until last weekend, a few months after the wedding. 

My wife saw one of our friends who is currently pregnant. Apparently, just before the wedding, she was in the bathroom with a bad case of morning sickness. When she sat down for the ceremony, still feeling nauseous, she had to listen to me describe, in vivid detail, the “spinning…spinning…spinning.” 

This is a comical reminder for me (and hopefully for you) that no creative work can please everyone. You can try your best to draw out the best thing within you, but you can’t control how someone is feeling when they encounter it. 

P.S. If you want to read the speech I wrote for Brett and Cierra, click here.