Armelle/Violet: We now begin with some people who would like to tell something to the bride and groom. And the first one is Gaia's father, Pier Paolo :

Are you ready?

> > If I don't frighten you or scare you away, I would talk about numbers.

Don't worry, no equations, square root or algorithm and above all no queries.

Now, it seems curious to me that we are all here celebrating a marriage, or rather THE marriage of my Gaietta to Arnoud, in the sense that 1 + 1 makes 2, and therefore in fact with this marriage we are celebrating number 2.

But in our everyday lives No. 2 is a strangely unloved number.

Instead, everyone's mind, I think, immediately goes to number 1.

1 means the first, the successful, the strong, the beautiful, the superlative. It is the top.  On the other hand number 2 is neglected, forgotten, shunned, avoided. We do not like it.

For those who play sports, or even more for those who follow it only from their home couch, thinking they know everything, even the winning lineups of the teams that lost the day before, 2 is a bad number.

It is the first of the losers. No. 1 is the absolute, the best, the myth, the magnificent achievement of a heroic feat. It is the expression of the hero. I am not saying this is totally wrong, but is it really true?

Is it really true that the number 1 is THE perfect one?

Is it only through number ones that humanity can progress, be exalted and perfected? But then are we wrong being here today? Perhaps not; indeed not at all!

Of course the 1 and the 2 have their why, but what if instead the real strength, the real engine of the world and of each of us, of our lives, was the number 2?

On the other hand, each of us without his or her pair, without the 2, me without Gio, so many of us here today without their pair, in presence or in their heart, Gaietta without Arnoud, and vice versa, what would we be?

What would they be?

We would not be here, and that would be a real shame!

There wouldn't be this party.

For goodness sake, it's nice to be alone too, I can tell it as I am quite a loner, but if we were really alone, always, if we were reduced to just number 1, what would we be?

I'm afraid nothing.

The mathematical expression would be 1 - 1 = zero!

Of course 2 is also tiring and difficult.

At certain times it can be frustrating, an impediment.

Number 2 involves labors, mediations, renunciations.

No one is exempted from these, nor me and Gio, nor Gaia and Arnoud - I am pretty sure they have already discovered it.

But without the other number 1 we would be incomplete, we could not compare, exchange, grow, rejoice, love; there would be no listening, no union, no synthesis.

Then it is no accident that the REAL number of life is not 1 at all but 2, because the heroes, the number 1s come much later.

After the 2!

It is no accident that nature and chemistry constantly celebrate not number 1 but number 2 instead, starting with the two wonderful little cells that joined not many years ago and did the miracle of creating Gaietta (and Arnoud of course) and a few years ago they did the new miracle of making our wonderful Ravi and Lunetta.

And these are miracles that luckily happen incessantly, everywhere, forever.

In short, I just want to say to our two number 1s, Gaia and Arnoud, that I am happy and very grateful to them that they have overcome the "false and lying" myth of number 1 and that even today they have confirmed and renewed and that in fact we are all celebrating together wonderful number 2, and that five years ago (almost six) that 2 turned into a 3 with Ravi, which  three years ago turned into a 4 with Lunetta, and who knows ...

Then, of course, in many years Gaia and Arnoud will return to number 2, but maybe they will also have numbers 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 around them...

... I told you I would talk about numbers ...