A toast to my father and his new bride.

This weekend Dave Alkire Senior and Judy Lares were wed. I was the best man, so I had to give a little speech. Here's what I came up with.

A very long time ago, in the active imaginations of some Mediterraneans, there were these three women: One very young -almost only a child, one grown up, and one, shall we say, very mature. Three women generations apart in age, and yet - sisters. If they were here, they would be in a cheerful good mood; you can imagine them sitting outside on a hill, on a bright warm sunny day, but they're busy. As always they continue with their tasks, each what they're best at: One of them spinning, as if with wool, one of them measuring, the other, clipping. All of them conspiring.

Hold that image in your mind for a moment, please.

When you're single and looking for a way to spend some time on a weekend, you need to find some clean fun, maybe get a little exercise, a little light chatter. Certainly it's possible to find a nice activity in this town. You could grab a friend and take a bicycle ride, go play handball someplace, or go bowling, or if the weather's bad, just stroll a few laps around the mall, or maybe go to a ballroom dance class.

The point is, it's just a little something to do - it'll boost your spirits a bit, but otherwise it will certainly be something of absolutely no consequence to the rest of your life.

So that's what Judy decided to do for that weekend; nothing terribly important.

And yet, somehow that small decision has set off a chain of events, leading inexorably to this very moment.

Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos are those three women, the ancient Greeks would say: Spinning, measuring, clipping, and for us, engaging in a happy conspiracy, perhaps allowing us to take their product and weave our own events.

Look at Dave and Judy -- their characters -- they attractively match: Judy is astonishingly kind, hard-working, cheerful and open-minded. My father Dave shares all of those qualities. And there's a little something else too, some other unnamed attribute that they share, that draws these two inevitably together.

It's the three fates we can thank, or it's divine will, or it's a more earthy poetic, a combination of natural course and the choices made by Judy and Dave.

At any case, I think there could have been no other outcome; your presence is my evidence, and this is a good thing: A union for two, a reunion for many; for these I thank you, Judy and Dave. A toast!