Searching for Tao

Matt & Shawna got married this weekend, and I got to be the Best Man. It was a beautiful ceremony and the reception was a lot of fun. For those of you who might be interested, the photos are up on Google Plus, since my own image gallery is... well it sucks. I need to make a bunch of changes to it and frankly I've got more fun things to work on right now. But yes, the photos are up there and they're public, so you don't need an account to see them.

I wanted to post my speech for the couple here though, if only for my own records, since this is the one body of data I tend to keep tabs on. A file called "speech.txt" tends to get lost :-) Big props to Melanie who helped me with it, and to the happy couple who inspired it.

Hello ladies and gentlemen, my name's Daniel Quinn and I'm Matt's brother and Best Man tonight.

When contemplating what to put into this speech, I initially thought I might pepper it with fun stories about what a bad kid Matt was, but I'm not going to do that. Don't get me wrong, Matt was a Very Bad Kid growing up, but all of those stories are just stories that outline a singular truth about who he is:

Matt does what he wants, however he wants to do it.

He will not be dictated to, and he will not be advised. He doesn't follow rules that he hasn't tested by breaking them at least once, and instead charges headlong into the world with a map drawn only by his *own* past experience. Often he'll run clear into walls, fall down, get up, and run at that wall again and again and until it comes down. Matt was the kid that mashed puzzle pieces together to make them fit. He does things his way, or not at all and I've spent my life wishing I could be as bold as he is.

...it's probably better that it didn't turn out that way though, Dad's hair can only go white once.

Now that he's found Shawna, he's still the same headstrong smartass he's always been, but in her he's found a partner. Someone who puts up with his attitude, but doesn't give him a free pass, and has shown time and time again that she'll be right there with him barrelling through life, shoulder to shoulder with Matt, knocking down whatever stands in their way. Alone, Matt's a force to be reckoned with, but together these two are unstoppable.

Shawna is exactly the kind of person I always wanted to see with my brother. She is patient and smart, enthusiastic and wilful, and genuinely gets Matt on a level that few others do. And so I'm thrilled to welcome Shawna to our family.

Congratulations to both of you.