readings idea: captain corelli’s mandolin

Are you enjoying these readings ideas?  If you've missed them, here are the earlier ones: here and here.  Since my couples tend to be non-religious and/or non-traditional, it's fun getting to provide ideas about readings that are focused on love, commitment, marriage, friendship, etc, that can be used in their wedding ceremony rather than the traditional or "normal" ones they've heard many times.

Here is another one that speaks to many of my couples and their ceremony messaging:

Excerpt from “Captain Corelli's Mandolin” by Louis de Bernières

Love is a temporary madness; it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of eternal passion. That is just being in love, which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Those that truly love have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two.