Alaskan Wedding

Alaska's been in the news a lot lately, and I've realized I really have very little idea about what it's actually like there. I don't think I've ever met anyone from Alaska, I've never been there, and I've only seen photos and film of the national parks, so I have no idea what the cities and towns are actually like. I have to imagine that the ethos of the Alaskans is very different, but I'm not exactly sure what that means.

When my friend Alissa sent me a link to a set of pictures of an Alaskan wedding, things started to crystallize for me a little. Guest were wearing jeans, rollerskating at the reception, and chugging beer straight from the pitcher, all with the cheerful approval of the bride and groom. The ethos I didn't understand was that they simply didn't give a fuck. And not just the self-conscious "I don't give a fuck what people think" that we say when we have the awareness to know what other people's judgments will be. I'm talking genuine not-giving-a-fuckness, where if giving a fuck is a choice you make between red and blue, people's opinions are on a spectrum of burgers or ice cream. The rest of us have wasted so much time giving a fuck about dumb stuff like flat-ironing our bangs, reading reviews of concerts we didn't even attend, and talking about being sick of answering questions about our tattoos. I'm so busy giving a fuck, it's a wonder I even learned to breathe.

The bride wore pink and boots: