Trust: The Word for 2015
When you’re chided for your naiveté, and you will be, remind your critics that an amateur built the arc, experts built the Titanic.
Peyton Manning
The following actual conversation (well, sort of) took place at 7:45pm on December 31, 2014, approximately fifteen minutes before I called it a year and ran off to bed.
Pretty Blonde: “You’re going to bed? Already? Before the ball even drops? Just look at you. I remember when you used to be a good time. You haven’t been the man I married since you discovered that the volume knob also turns to the left.”
Me: “You love Ryan Seacrest. I love flannel sheets. End of story.”
The Pretty Blonde: “Speaking of stories, I’ve decided I’m no longer going to pursue some silly, useless New Year’s resolutions that have zero chance of happening. Instead, I’m just going to select a single word to guide me during 2015.”
Me: “Let me guess…chocolate!”
The Pretty Blonde: “Wrong, Mr. Formerly Fun Husband of Mine. My word for 2015 is simpler and much easier to digest…TRUST.”
The Pretty Blonde has a birthday this weekend, and my job as Husband-In-Chief is threefold. One, make sure there’s an ample supply of See’s Chocolates in the house at all times. Two, be able to perform perfunctory neck and foot massages at a moment’s notice. And three, allow my wife of 29 years unfettered access to the television remote control. The first two are easy to pull off, but that third one requires, at least for this moronic self-professed King of His Castle, a heaping helping of trust.
The fact she came up with a world like “trust” to navigate her way through 2015 says volumes. Possessed with unflappable faith and a stubborn will, The Pretty Blonde has taken it upon herself to reinvent herself, to let go of the reins a touch, to buy into the fact that she can’t control every aspect of her life. Can her husband stay healthy? Will she get a raise at work? Should The Red-Headed Kid keep working long hours? Where will The Skinny Kid find a summer job? These are questions she would normally lose sleep over, parsing each development and questioning their meaning. I know her, and I know taking this course of action was not easy. “I’m going to trust God to look after us,” she said recently, “and I’m going to trust that Ross and Keith will find their way in the working world” I had to pinch myself. Did she really say that?
Birthdays are a reason to celebrate, and sometimes you celebrate for a reason. I’m celebrating the fact that The Pretty Blonde refuses to stand still, and continues to grow as a person. Words cannot describe how proud I am of her.
And speaking of trust, with regards to the remote control, did I mention The Pretty Blonde happens to be a huge football fan? Another reason I love her.
Happy Birthday, Mrs. Anne Geiger, from Mr. Anne Geiger