Hi there!
Before you read the rest of this very long email (which you should, by the way, there’s some good stuff in here!). You should visit this website, which will answer a bunch of questions you probably have about our celebration in Mérida in July: plasaj.club.
Of utmost importance is an update on RSVPs. On the site is a form where we need your name, number of guests, and if any of those guests are children. If you RSVP yes, the form also includes space for dietary restrictions/allergies we should know about. PLEASE fill out the RSVP at your earliest convenience. The sooner we know if you’re coming, the better we’ll be able to plan for everyone!
Now onto the sappy stuff! In imagining the invitation to this celebration, we found ourselves in want of proper language. Is it a commitment ceremony? A fake wedding? An elaborate joke about marriage? A group vacation? Does it even matter? The actual facts are: we love each other, we love you, we love Mérida, and we wanted all our loves in the same place at the same time—a seemingly impossible brief given the way LIFE happens to us all these days.
In our attempt to find the right words, we opened one of the (too) many books we have for some guidance. In Haiti, History, and the Gods, Colin Dayan describes plasaj as a kind of union. A social practice in historical and contemporary Haiti, the word plasaj means “to place.” Dayan further explains: “To place oneself means to establish both a household and agricultural cultivation. But whatever the relationship, the unions are expected to last.”
Cultivating a life together makes sense to us. It’s really just a practice of making several attempts at any number of things for an indistinguishable period of time.
With that, here’s our first attempt at getting you the information you need to get to Mérida in July! In the coming months, we’ll make a few more attempts at sharing information, including books, articles, podcasts, and more that explore ideas around unions, relations, family, and love. Stay tuned!
In the meantime, peruse the website: plasaj.club.
Listen to this brilliant rendition of a song we should probably never hear again.
Read this article that asks how we define “our sense of family and community.”
Looking forward to seeing you all in Mérida!
Diane & Richard