Wedding Selection as an adaptive convergence?

This blog is never used to discuss anything other than palaeontology and the research that our group undertakes at the University of Manchester, but here I make a rare exception.  I will let you be the judge of whether the following belongs on our blog....I think it just makes the mark!

On Saturday April 27th Victoria Egerton and I had our wedding ceremony at the Manchester Museum (University of Manchester). Given our shared interest in palaeontology, we thought our vows should reflect this. Here follows a rather Darwinian wedding ceremony.... 

"Friends, we are gathered here today to join Phillip and Victoria in marriage. In this beautiful building, which is one of nature’s treasure houses, they announce that they will share their lives together. We are all called to be witnesses here today to the love that they share for each other."

Main Ceremony 

"The adaptations that natural selection has gently bestowed upon us yield the endless forms most beautiful that fill our lives. Life on our planet today is one where the struggle for existence is made so much kinder when shared with a partner who understands and jointly explores the wonders of the world in which we live. 

Phil and Victoria have chosen to share their lives together and discover the wonders of the world in their coming years. The chemistry of love that bonds them is firmly linked by their shared experiences and knowledge that brings these two people together so closely.

Just as the bonds of a double helix dictates the beautiful complexities of life, their love for each other is firmly bound in the security that their very existence is linked to all life on earth, whose shared elemental origin was the very building blocks of stars.

The commonality of the molecules that builds life on Earth, transferred from generation to generation, links Victoria and Phil to the planetary cycles that mobilize, share and regenerate all life on Earth.

Together they have many close friends, some of whom have joined them today on this special occasion. Many of their friends enjoy taking time to think, ponder and share the eccentricities that divides us, but that also creates a shared bond between us. As Darwin once said,  “A man's friendships are one of the best measures of his worth”, if this be the case, both Victoria and Phil share great wealth.

Their transatlantic journeys have brought them together, when so often the continents have impeded such migration. The distances that once parted Victoria and Phil, is now bridged through the love that they both share for each other.

May the light that their love brings into the world shine brighter than a million suns."

The Dismissal 

"Einstein beautifully summed-up up the love that both Victoria and Phil clearly share, 'Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love. How on earth can you explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love? Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.'

Please join us in wishing Victoria and Phil a successful and exciting journey to discover their future and build a life together, governed by the laws of natural selection and the love that they share for each other."