On Matrimony: A Conversation With Stephen Jenkinson
In Celebration of his newest book Matrimony: Ritual, Culture and the Heart's Work.
I just completed an interview with Stephen Jenkinson on the occasion of his new book emerging into the world in mid-August: Matrimony: Ritual, Culture and the Heart’s Work.
I read the book a few weeks ago and it’s a gorgeous work leaving the reader with a deepened ache for those cultures we may have been orphaned from so long ago and with enough clear seeds of possibility to begin to plant the better tomorrow that we will likely never live to see.
If I could do the interview over again, I’d ease in a bit more and ask questions like, “Why this book now? What’s the story of how it came about?” or “Tell me about the image you chose for the cover.”
But, instead, I launched in with an enormous question.
And so, it began in the middle of the conversation about what it is we might find in the center of matrimonial doings (and what we might not).
We ended there too.
And so, this was a conversation that got straight to the marrow in a way that I hope didn’t do any damage to the bone-house of beauty that Stephen wrote holding it all.
If you are a celebrant, ceremonialist, ritualist or drawn to such things, this conversation is full of grist for the mill that is matrimony and full of tobacco you can smoke for the pipe that is patrimony.
One thought occurred to me after the call ended, and it won’t make sense until you’ve listened to the whole thing: the role of the celebrant is to make sure that those two, wood stumps are not at the center despite everyone wanting and expecting them to be for it to be a ‘real wedding’. That’s one of their central jobs.
Again, it’ll make more sense once you’ve listened through it.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the thing.
And, if this whets your whistle, then I urge you to consider signing up for my dear colleague Kimberly Anne Johnson’s event on August 10th.
You can share it up on Instagram at the link below:
And, if you are drawn to this work of ritual, culture-work and trying to do something about the cultural poverties that beset us, consider joining Stephen, Kimberly and myself in New Mexico this November for Arc + Craft.
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