On this day…

…fully two decades past, a rather bright and wise young lady of my acquaintance, in a stunning lapse of judgment, followed through on the commitment she had made several months before to marry me.  It is probably the worst decision she ever made for her own welfare; it is the best one she ever made for mine.

I am not, I have found, an easy person to get  along with, and in the twenty years since that day, I’m certain that she has done far more acquiesing and battle-choosing than she ever dreamed she would.    What happiness she has achieved regarding her husband has been, no doubt, through the application of lowered bars and bracketed expectations.  (By contrast, most of the problems i have had with her have been of the “Is Jell-O a salad or a dessert? variety.*)

I wish to use this forum, as ill-attended as it may be, to publicly thank her for these two decades.  I don’t know precisely what my life would be without her, but it would certainly be less rich, less happy, and less righteous.

I love you, honey. Happy twenty years, and here’s to eternity more.

*It’s a dessert.