In all the drama of late, 'SPLENDA in the Mud', if you will, I neglected to announce that Phyllis and I celebrated our twenty-third religious wedding anniversary recently. The original event was on Sweetest Day in 1984 and, ever since, we've celebrated it on Sweetest Day instead of the calendar date anniversary. (We do celebrate our civil marriage anniversary on its calendar date in July. This year marked our fourth of that one.)

We make it a point to point out that we have separate religious and civil wedding anniversaries to help people understand the difference between them and that the First Amendment works both ways, meaning that we have had the right to hold religious weddings all along just as churches have had the right not to marry us all along, too -- that what we need in this country and are working for now is civil marriage equality and that nothing in civil marriage equality will change the First Amendment's two-way protection of our right to religious marriage nor the right of religions and their institutions to forego participation in it.

To my beloved spouse, miles and the demands of life and work may sometimes separate us but our hearts will ever beat as one. Every day with you is an anniversary of love unfolding. Here's to the surprises yet to come!