Today is Valentine's Day, and while I appreciate the history that the link provides, I'm struggling with the meaning, which remains probably more personal and individual for each of us than anything else we do or ever have in our lives.
My wife and I have been married for forty-nine years, this October, though in recent weeks I've subjected my bride to bracing for the next installment of Wild Billy's Circus Story. We live in Norwich, CT, in a home we once shared with our two children, both grown and gone, far from where either of us grew up, her more so than I. |
| How it Started |
I'm from a couple of hours down the turnpike, New Brunswick, NJ (whose Mayor was my classmate from 3rd through 8th grades. Sometimes it's the journey and other times the destination, I guess).
She came of age in Offenbach am Main, a city in its own right in the shadow of Frankfurt am Main, (West) Germany (it's hard to realize the number of years that have passed since we no longer needed to make that distinction.)
And of all the places she or I thought we might have been had we stayed married, where we are now is not one of those places. We met and married in her country at the height of the Cold War, and I never really gave thought to living anywhere else.
We, or at least I, lived without a plan and for the most part, without a care. In many respects, I guess, we are the Ant and Grasshopper of married couples. She has always defined who I am and who I could ever hope to be.
And of all the places she or I thought we might have been had we stayed married, where we are now is not one of those places. We met and married in her country at the height of the Cold War, and I never really gave thought to living anywhere else.
We, or at least I, lived without a plan and for the most part, without a care. In many respects, I guess, we are the Ant and Grasshopper of married couples. She has always defined who I am and who I could ever hope to be.
 |
| How it's Going |
Knowing she will, and always does, love me despite the insanity and inanity of living with me, is all the reward I need to be who I am. I've always admired Robert's note to Elizabeth Barrett, "Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, the last of life, for which the first was made.
And I wasn't alone in my admiration. In both of those instances, I wish I had half the eloquence each of those men showed to the women they loved, because I feel that way about my wife, but don't possess the gift to express it.
So I'll borrow from another Jersey Guy. "So hold me close, honey, say you're forever mine. And tell me you'll be my lonely valentine." Für immer und ewig.
-bill kenny
-bill kenny
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