:49:00
There's often so much sham
about this business of marriage.
:49:06
Everyone accepts it. Ritual.
:49:09
That's why I was so heartened when Alfred
asked me to perform this ceremony.
:49:14
He has certain beliefs,
which I assume you all know.
:49:18
He is an atheist, which is perfectly
all right. Really it is.
:49:22
I happen not to be, but inasmuch
as this ceremony connotes...
:49:26
an abandonment of ritual...
:49:28
in the search for truth...
:49:30
I agreed to perform it.
:49:33
First, let me state to you, Alfred...
:49:37
and to you, Patricia...
:49:39
that of the 200 marriages
that I have performed...
:49:43
all but seven have failed.
:49:46
So the odds are not good.
:49:48
We don't like to admit it,
especially at the wedding ceremony...
:49:51
but it's in the back
of all our minds, isn't it?
:49:54
How long will it last?
We all think that, don't we?
:49:58
We don't like to bring it out in the open,
but we all think that.
:50:01
Well, I say, why not bring it out
in the open?
:50:05
Why does one decide to marry?
:50:08
Social pressure?
Boredom? Loneliness?
:50:12
Sexual appeasement?
:50:15
Love?
:50:17
I won't put any of these reasons down.
:50:19
Each in its own way is adequate.
Each is all right.
:50:21
Last year I married a musician who wanted
to get married in order to stop masturbating.
:50:26
Please, don't be startled.
I'm not putting him down.
:50:29
That marriage did not work.
:50:32
But the man tried.
:50:34
He is now separated,
still masturbating...
:50:38
but he is at peace
with himself...
:50:40
because he tried society's way.
:50:42
So, you see, it was not a mistake.
It turned out all right.
:50:45
Now, just last month I married
a novelist to a painter.
:50:50
Everyone at the wedding ceremony was under
the influence of an hallucinogenic drug.
:50:56
The drug quickened
our mental responses...
:50:58
slowed our physical responses...