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How Is a Wedding Like the Super Bowl?


The answer to this question might be, for example, both a wedding and the Super Bowl game are special days. Over the years, I’ve known people—and not all men by any stretch of the imagination, who would rather not have shown up for their own wedding, than miss a chance for even a nosebleed bleachers ticket at the Super Bowl.


In both events, some things are lost, some things are gained; some things are learned, some things are better forgotten. In both, the names of the participants are very important. Also, in later years, photographs, videos and mementos are all important.


However, you may rightly ask: What exactly does the first anniversary of the first Super Bowl and Rebecca & Khalil’s marriage, as told in Wedding Tales, have in common?


A lot:

1. Both were conducted in surprising and greatly unanticipated circumstances.

2. Both took place in the month of January, although a year apart.

3. Both will celebrate their Fiftieth Anniversary (1966 – 2016).


Probably, you find the first similarity—that both took place in January—not so startling. I’m sure you will agree that both the second similarity—unanticipated circumstances—and third similarity—both have their 50th anniversary—to be informative, if not downright amazing.


It may help to look closer at them. You have to look backward in time to analyze point number two—unanticipated circumstances. Most sports writers and fans believed that in the 1966 season, any team in the older NFL was vastly superior to any club in the upstart AFL. They fully expected that the Green Bay Packers would blow out the Kansas City Chiefs. However, hard to believe, but in the first half, the Chiefs kept the contest very close. But, as predicted, in the second half, it was no contest. The Packers led by Bart Starr completely dominated the highly touted Chiefs and routed them 35-10. The Chiefs scored all 10 points in one quarter only. The trophy awarded was, at that time, called the “World Championship Game Trophy” named for the contest called the "AFL-NFL World Championship Game."


To look at the third point—the 50th anniversary—you have to go forward in time from 1966 to the present. In The Butterfly & The Snail, you encountered Rebecca Butler and Khalil Khoury for the first time when they met during a study session in Salzburg, Austria in the summer of 1964. At the end of the book, many readers have asked: What happened to Khalil? In Wedding Tales, Book One: Love’s Journey, you find out the answer. The last pages of the B&S story leave you hanging wondering whether Khalil will remain in the Jesuits and follow his life's dream to go to Lebanon, the home of his immigrant parents. Or, after taking every measure possible to cling to his vocation, will his powerful love for Rebecca sway him to forsake a calling to the priesthood and being ordained the following year after twelve years of studies.


If you haven't guessed by the title of the second book in this "Rebecca-Khalil" series, they are getting married. The guests have all gathered in the beautiful Jesuit church, Holy Trinity, located a few blocks from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.


But not all guests have taken their place inside the church. One, an unexpected and uninvited “guest” comes to the wedding and throws everything into turmoil. While Rebecca & Khalil are professing their vows, the “guest”—known only as the "Blizzard of '66" because it is the worst snowfall in forty years—takes a seat at the head table. Like a petulant child it storms through the East Coast dumping twenty inches here and thirty inches there. It brings in another uninvited guest, the Great North Wind and challenges him to a contest of how high he can blow drifts. The mighty capitol of the United States, Washington, D.C., was unprepared for this vengeful blizzard. The city’s four snow plows—one for each quadrant of the Federal city—could not get out of their barns due to the suddenness and ferocity of the storm.


Snowed-in relatives, attempting to pass the tedium of not being able to leave the house or hotel, ease their unrest by telling stories of why their ancestors left their homelands to relocate in America. Join Rebecca and Khalil's relatives as they share the heart warming, uplifting tales of how their ancestors overcame almost insurmountable obstacles to reach the new world and their hoped-for freedom.


Find out why Rebecca’s ancestors immigrated to America. Experience along with Khalil’s ancestors the fear and sorrow they felt as they fled from their beloved homeland to America.


As a country of immigrants, you may also have stories of when you parents or grandparents—or maybe even you—came to America. I maintain a Genealogy Chart that keeps a record of the dates of our relatives’ births, school graduations, marriages and deaths of our ancestors. I'm fascinated by the tales people tell me about their family’s journeys. I invite you to tell us what adventures your current of ancestors had. As an incentive, a panel of judges will award The Butterfly & The Snail or Wedding Tales eBooks to the 5 best stories. Deadline: May 31, 2015.


Share Rebecca & Khalil’s journey of love as told in Wedding Tales, Book One: Love’s Journey, soon to be released (Launch Date, May 2015).

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