Garanimal Religion

Does anybody else remember the old 1970s Garanimal commercials for children’s clothing? Mix! Match! Save!

I think we need to revive the term—because I don’t know anything else to describe the press release that just showed up in my inbox, somehow dodging the spam filters that are supposed to save me from such things. “Singer/songwriter and social and political activist, Ed Hale,” it informs us, “lost his title of confirmed bachelor and tied the knot—not once but in three very different ceremonies!”

New York, NY, February 26, 2010 - The iconic singer of the rock group Transcendence, never known for doing things ‘ordinary,’ definitely did it his way in what may be the ‘interfaith wedding of the year!’ On February 13, Hale’s last Triple A radio hit single, I Walk Alone, no longer applied to him as he and the beautiful Nahal Mishel-Ghashghai, began their life together in a style that crosses all cultural barriers. At a church on the corner of Park Avenue in New York City, they were joined in a formally Islamic fashion in a traditional Persian wedding, followed immediately by a traditional Christian wedding.

The newlyweds then did “jump the broom,” a centuries-old African American wedding tradition, in solidarity with people around the world who are still victims of human trafficking and slavery today. At their reception, the couple held a traditional Tibetan Buddhist Ceremony as Venerable Pema of the Nechung Tibetan Buddhist Monastery performed Tibetan Buddhist prayers and bestowed wedding blessings upon them.

The press release doesn’t say what church that was on Park Avenue, but it hardly matters. Garanimal Religion! Mix! Match! Save!