Faithful

Tonight, 13 years ago, in another world, in another life, Maggie and I married.
Maggie, you have remained so very faithful to me. When it was easy and difficult, you have stayed committed and supportive to me in every way. When life, work and fatherhood stretched and stressed me to my limits, I never had to worry (you never gave me reason to worry) of our relationship, of your love for me, of your patience with my weaknesses.
You complete me, and I cannot imagine, do not want to imagine, this journey without you, without the comfort of knowing that you are there with me and for me.

Forest and Trees

Tea Partiers disdain the government as a consistent and continual waste of money, except in areas of government that benefits them… my dad’s a cop, my wife’s a teacher, I sure enjoy driving on this road and flushing my toilet. Progressives (it seems both parties have rebranded) disdain whoever has scored higher than them in life, claiming as rights what are more accurately privilege (and not always that), all the while aiming to advance to the heights of the very people they hold in contempt. Surrounding our eyes and ears with the like-minded, we create bogeyman of people through isolation and distance. We define them as ‘they’, and they as ‘them’. Marginalize. Stereotype.

Blacks. Rednecks. Unions. Wealthy. Homosexuals. Christians. Skinny-Jeans-People (well, maybe that one is pretty accurate). Groups containing people we don’t know, defined by inaccurate notions of our own strengths against their weaknesses.

We would do well to meet these people, separate the individual from the pack, and break down our own walls. Real people are, well, real. Their presence reveals an identity in contrast to our notioning, initiates comprehension, distances her from them, separates him from they. And maybe in such an encounter veils are lifted from both sets of eyes. Lest ye forget, to others, you are in one of these ill-defined groups as well.

The bottom of the lists

An unexpected email yesterday from the Thomas Eye Group, a rather large outfit here in Atlanta. Maggie had nominated me as one worthy of free LASIK surgery, writing a short essay of my general contributions to life (taking her cue from the political establishment, the writing exaggerates the reality). Worthy or not, it is a generous gesture. The trick, for myself and the two other finalists, was to convince the Facebook world to 'like' one of us the most.

Somehow I am expected to branch out and ask friends, Romans, countrymen to do the great favor of "liking" me, crossing all sorts of indeterminate lines in my life. But if Maggie has gone out on this limb to honor me, and Thomas Eye has taken a step of faith that this gift of theirs will gain some sort of advertisement medium, I need to swallow my introverted pride and get bawdy.

In a moment of appropriate irony, LASIK is something I would love to have, but will never likely put on the top of the list of financial expenditures ("Sorry, kids. No Disney this year. Dad doesn't like his glasses."). I am now being asked to win a LASIK contest to move this dream-ticket to the top of the heap, as long as I engage in self-promotion, distinctly at the bottom of my activity-list.

     "Uhmmm, excuse me, but would you mind clicking this link and 'liking' me?" - too pitiful.

     "My wife really wants you to..." - don't hide behind Maggie; be a man.

     "This is SO CRAZY! I cannot believe that this once in a lifetime opportunity has landed on my lap. I'm just hoping you want to join me in this." - too bobble-headed.

Time to start begging...

Guilty until proven Innocent

I sat next to a very nice and distinctly talkative lady on the flight down here. She was fulfilling her daily verbiage quota, and I was doing my best to be a gentleman. A Belizian expat returning home to visit family, she knew everyone in this small country, and dropped names and titles beyond my memory capacity.
"If you ever need anything, have any problems getting something done, you just give me a call and I will call my (insert name) , who is (insert title), and we'll get it cleared up." Then she gave me her card, which I directly put in my pocket.
I am now returning home; as I pack I find the card, a very dangerous card, which yields a corona of guilt around all who carry it, regardless of their intent. Scripture teaches that what comes out of a person determines their guilt, not what they carry with them. I do believe this card is an implied exception: "Julia Torres, Divorce Specialist"

Choosing between having a potential helper in our work here and having my wife find the card, I do what we learned in basic training: tore it into little pieces and sent it to separate trash bins in the four corners of the airport.