On March 29th, 2009, an explosive reunion of Dutch and Argentines convened at the Plaza Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The occasion: the wedding of Jennifer Taylor and Frithjof Van Zyp.
Friends and family from over 20 countries came together to celebrate the union of two "third culture kids".
Jenny had grown up in Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, and the U.S. Fridge's journey had taken him to Indonesia, Netherlands, Sri Lanka, Aruba, Scotland, and eventually the U.S. where he met Jenny.
Two international students, they were brought together at an American college and today are devoted parents of two Australian kids.
On March 29th, 2009, Jan Willem and Josephine Van Zyp had yet to be born but they were referenced in my "Cobwebs" speech.
The words that were woven together over twelve years ago, would come to serve as the theme for the book that Margie and I are writing today.
The 2009 Wedding Speech:
In his essay, ‘A Shower of Gossamer’, William Henry Hudson, known here as Guillermo Enrique Hudson, the US born English and Argentine naturalist author talks about the tiny gossamer spiders of the River Plate which around this time of the year ride their cobwebs on the River’s breezes, accumulating in various places into a thin fabric that covers everything.
As I look across this room, I see in my mind's eye the gossamer cobwebs that link each and every one of us here. The material of real gossamer cobwebs is thin and fragile but incredibly it is the strongest natural fiber in existence. If we were somehow able to weave it into a cable, it would have a higher load bearing capacity than most synthetic fibers.
The gossamer strands that bind us all together tonight are made up of love, heritage, friendship, biography, tradition and DNA, and now strengthened by e‐mail, MSN, SMS, Facebook, Twitter and Skype.
Over time, these cobwebs strengthen or dissipate. Tonight, Jenny and Fridge are tying together two very extensive, world‐wide cobwebs, which they are destined to reinforce as they move around the world and develop their partnership, which we all hope will soon be blessed with their children.
A word to Jenny and Fridge about cobweb management. The spider spins two kinds of thread. The spokes that go out from the center are strong and not sticky – the warp of the spider’s loom. The gossamer across the spokes, the weft of this loom, is sticky, and traps the spider’s food. The spider eats the weft, along with the food trapped in it, and, in essence, knits a new web every day, eating ‘something old and something new’ to stay alive and reproduce. Only living things can create food for living things.
The definition of a living thing is something that is born, grows, reproduces, and dies. A cobweb is alive and lives on so long as the spiders who tend it keep knitting.