Showing up in person at a wedding, even just as a guest, is a way of honoring that bodily commitment, just as showing up in person at a funeral is a way of honoring the fullness of the one we loved. And these public moments are so significant because they correspond to even more profoundly intimate bodily realities. Though these invitations are rarer, for good reasons, there is nothing so holy as to be present for a birth—or for a death.
