Another Friday has arrived,

and this day will be filled with the wedding of a pair of lovely young friends. I've been asked to participate in the wedding that will join in marriage two families across the artificial barriers of race -- She is Jewish and he, African American. His father, a minister, and her rabbi will co-officiate in the ceremony and many of the customs and rituals of both races are integral to the service. It should be another remarkable event in this remarkable and eventful life of mine.

She comes from an academic family from Cambridge, MA., where her parents are still actively involved in teaching. He is the son of a prominent midwestern clergyman. They are both staffers for members of the state and federal legislatures. I love them both.

It should be a beautiful afternoon and evening, with activities round the clock. There are many who have traveled from far away places to share this day, so plans are many and varied.

The wedding is being held at another of the magnificent redwood forests high in the Oakland hills, Joaquin Miller Park, and promises to be a fitting end to a cram-filled week of the best kind of busyness -- the kind that completely blocked out the charade taking place in New York in Madison Square Garden. News of the vast numbers who marched and danced and protested on the streets was heartening. The irony of Medea Benjamin and her cohorts (Women in Pink) repeatedly getting through the barriers and onto the floor of the convention made a mockery of so-called "security." It was quite clear that -- unless one was clearly middle eastern in appearance, it was fairly safe to crash the party! I will spend tomorrow catching up and tamping down the anger and fears that lie so near the surface, and that cause me to catch my breath for a few seconds whenever I allow the space to think. I'm sure that I really didn't want to pay heed to any of it. Except for a momentary glimpse late some evenings, and doing my best to catch Jon Stewart's Daily Show each night, I managed to escape much of it.

Tomorrow I'll get back to world-saving. Today I'm off to stand with others in the filtering sunlight of those awesome redwoods while we join together in holy matrimony -- two young lives of significance.

Can't think of a more fitting way to end this week... .