The Perfect Husband

“In a happy marriage it is the wife who provides the climate, the husband the landscape.” Gerald Brenan, historical writer

 

The smile:

My children as well as my nieces and nephews have been bought up as my siblings and I. Our parents did the same as well as earlier generations. We sit around kitchen tables, camp fires, coffee counters and driveways. If you are from the South, I know you know what I mean. I suspect every region has a version of what I am saying. We congregate when in circles and groups to tell stories, swap gossip and laugh with the people we care the most.

It was like any average afternoon at our family home place, Saddle Ridge. Cattle could be seen grazing on a far hillside. Waterfowl swam lazily on the lake. My mother sat at one end of the table with my brother and I on either side. We all took slow draws from our coffee cups as we laughed about years passed, recent hurdles and hopes not yet realized. Occasionally one of the kids would sit with us. The moment at hand it was two of the teenagers, my niece, Abby, and my daughter, Shiloh. The topic was marriage.

Abby, who is as beautiful as the morning sun on the Tennessee River and country as saw mill gravy, described her perfect man. She said. “He has to funny and smart. He has to keep up on what’s happening in the world, so we can have something to talk about. Oh yea, and sing. I like to sing. He’ll have to sing and play music.  Most of all no running around. He will have to stay home at night….” She sat quietly in thought to make sure she hadn’t missed anything.

Shiloh thought for a second as well before adding “Abby, you don’t want a man. You want a television.”

 

The ponder:

How can we know when we find the perfect mate or even can we know? Does our idealistic view of ourselves sometimes  get in the way of us meeting someone that we are truly compatible?

 

The Fudoshina Challenge:

 

Exercise	reps/ goal
Straight Punches	700 / 2000
Knuckle Push-ups	435/2000
Olymipic sit-ups	435/2000
Squat kicks	435/2000
Front kicks	250/2000
Side kicks	125/2000
Back kicks	125/2000
Upper blocks	500/2000
Downward blocks	500/2000
Inward blocks	500/2000
Outward blocks	500/2000