Posted by Shane Becker on
2022-02-05 update: we did not get married and are no longer engaged. This happened back in 2020-09. I’m just only now updating my post about it.
tl;dr I proposed to Morgan. She said yes. We’re gonna get married!
On 2017-12-30 in a little town called Paia on Maui, Hawaii, Morgan, Eli and I were sitting on the sidewalk eating some food that we bought across the street at a natural foods grocery store called Mana Foods. A couple people walked passed us and only Morgan was looking in the right direction to see that one of the people was Weird Al Yankovich.
On 2017-12-31, Morgan, Eli and I were hitchhiking on South Kihei Road to go to Little Beach for the Sunday / New Year’s Eve festivities. A car drove by and Eli and I both looked at the driver and Morgan happened to look at the passenger riding shotgun and saw that it was Weird Al Yankovich again!
We caught a ride with Saman in his overheating van that was full of coconuts and lilikoi. He was also going to Little Beach, so he took us all the way there. We walked in through Big Beach, climbed over the thirty-ish foot rock and arrived at Little Beach. When we got there at around 5pm, there were probably about 200 people there.
Little Beach is a clothing optional beach. It’s got beautiful soft sand, gentle but fun waves and a view of Lanai, Kahoolawe, and Molokini Crater. Every Sunday people get together and form a drum circle and do fire spinning.
We watched people bang on their drums. We swam in the waves. We saw humpback whales jumping out of the water doing adorable little twists and blowing breathes out of their blowholes. We watched the sun set and everyone cheered.1
After the sunset, most people on the beach left. Some people started spinning fire. We ate some more snacks. At twilight, the three of us took off our swim suits and went skinny dipping. 2
Eli got done swimming first and headed back to the towel (and, let’s be honest, the snacks). Morgan and I stayed in the water, naked bobbing in the waves of the Pacific Ocean at twilight. While holding each other close like a couple koala bears for warmth and for kissing, I realized that this was the moment I had been waiting for.
Sometime in the middle of 2017, I decided to ask Morgan to marry me, but I didn’t want to propose then, during cancer and chemo and the general dumpster fire of 2017. I wanted it to be a special moment when we were our best selves, a happy memory forever.
It was New Year’s Eve. We were on Maui in Hawaii on a beautiful beach. We had just watched a great sunset and whales breaching. Hippies were banging on drums and spinning fire. We were holding each other naked in the ocean. We3 saw Weird Al twice in as many days. This was, in fact, us at our best selves.
So, I said to her. Girlfriend, you’re the best girlfriend ever. Let’s have a marriage. Let’s have a marriage license. But in the voice of Homestar Runner. She said, ok. And then we kissed out in water, now engaged!
There was no ring. We both hate rings and don’t want our fingers to get ripped off. We’re not gonna elope or go to the courthouse. We’ll do up a right and proper wedding with all of our people there. We don’t know any of the other details yet. When we figure it out, we’ll blast it out. XOXO.
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That’s a thing that we’ve seen at several beaches, not just the hippie drum circle nude beach. People of all types on Maui cheer after the sun sets. I like it. ↩
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This was a big deal for me. I’ve never been very courageous about my body and nudity in public or in front of people other than my girlfriend. I’m trying to get over that particular hang up. I’ve just started wearing little bitty hot pants booty shorts swim trunks. It’s a small thing, but it was a big personal achievement for me. New year, new me. ↩
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“We”, but really just Morgan. I only saw the back of his hair as we walked away. ↩