We are truly lucky to live in this city (unless you’re a sports fan, of course). Every so often I am reminded of this by seeing something you just wouldn’t see in many other cities around the world. And more often than not, this is quite powerful.
This past weekend I had the privilege of attending the wedding of a good friend of mine from high-school. It was a beautiful ceremony and everyone had an amazing time, but there was nothing truly ‘out of the ordinary’ that would seemingly make for good blog material. Except for one thing… the wedding party.
First things first. The groom, who is my friend from high-school, hails from German ancestry. The bride, who is South African, practices her Jewish faith. My German friend decided to make a personal commitment to Judaism, so this was to be a Jewish wedding. Not unusual you say? After all, this is Toronto and surely we’ve seen couples in a situation like this before.
But, wait. Then we were introduced to the groomsmen. Starting from the left, we had an Afghani young man of the Pashtun faith, an Italian, a Persian, a Punjabi, a Brit, another Italian, a South African fellow of the Jewish faith, and finally another German who was the Groom’s brother. All of these gentlemen were wearing yarmulkes for the occasion, except for our Punjabi friend (it was against his religion), and he compromised by wearing a poor boy hat. Seeing my Afghani friend from high-school (who is 6’7″ tall) wearing a yarmulke was worth the price of admission alone.
The bridesmaids weren’t much different. Two South African women (both Jewish, one white, one black), an Indian woman, a Chinese woman, and two more women that I didn’t know and don’t want to speculate about their ancestry. All were beautiful young women, inside and out.
Where else but in this amazing city would you see such a multicultural display of love and harmony? The beautiful part was that it all seemed so natural. I don’t know why I expected anything different. I mean I knew all these characters on the groom’s side since high-school. We went to a very multicultural high-school and for the most part, everyone got along.
Maybe I’ve been watching too much CNN lately….I admit I watched most of the George Zimmerman second-degree murder case. Or perhaps all those video games as a kid pitting different countries against each other did have some effect on my consciousness?
The truth is that I probably did something that many of us do on a daily basis. I forgot how fortunate I am, and how fortunate we are to live in a city that accepts people no matter what our race, gender, colour, age, sexual preference or political views are.
We should be thankful everyday. There are small towns in the United States that still have segregated proms. There are many places where a gay couple still can’t get married. Across the globe we see killing in the name of trying to eradicate differences.
In Toronto, it’s normal now. But just because it’s normal doesn’t mean we shouldn’t revel in the fact that we are very unique in this regard. This wedding was a beautiful ceremony and a great reminder of this city’s spirit.
Be proud, Toronto!</p>