It’s incredible! The moon tonight is giant, pale gold, with a shimmering halo. Beneath this magnificent beauty, hundreds — maybe thousands — of couples throughout California (except Kern and Butte Counties, of course, where separation of church and state doesn’t seem to apply) are celebrating their first night as husband and… husband. Or wife and wife. Or maybe it’s husband and wife. “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” fair Juliet tells her Romeo in Shakespeare’s play, and I doubt any of the gay and lesbian couples who tied the knot today would quibble about semantics. Never mind the protesters squalling in the background that marriage is between a man and several women. No of course they don’t say that (unless they’re LDS), no matter how many times they’ve been divorced, but the truth is that marriage is an institution created by humans, not passed down from any higher power.

I wonder how one of those loudmouthed protesters would feel about being barred from visiting his spouse in intensive care. Or she, if her spouse died, and his pension stopped. He, she, they’re interchangeable here. The point is, anyone who believes in a supreme creator should know that we all are created in the same image, and are equally worthy.

I hope the glow of this full moon lasts a lifetime for the newlyweds.