Celebrating Half a Century

The Man of the House turned 50 this weekend.

I sure love him.

21 years ago he won my heart because he was personally kempt. All the other college boys were so slovenly in their personal dress, often grimy, and complained loudly if they had to dress up for anything. My guy was alway neat and clean, shirt always tucked in. He took pride in dressing well, and I knew I needed someone who would without complaint put on a sports coat and a tie and take me to concerts.

He valued education generally, and literature particularly, especially poetry and Shakespeare. It is really from him that I learned to love Shakespeare. Until then, I had liked Shakespeare on principle because smart people valued it, and I was smug about it because I didn’t struggle to read it the way my fellow high school classmates had.

But this guy had memorized Richard the V’s speech on St Crispin’s Day. We watched Kenneth Braunaugh Shakespeare films and every Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet movie available. I began to like Shakespeare because it was funny and real and insightful.

This guy read e e cumings and William Carlos Williams to me and wrote poetry to me in emails. I wrote poetry back to him, and he liked it.

He cared about astronomy.

We have been married for 21 years, and he is still kempt. If we are going out on a date—even if it’s just to get sushi at the sushi truck and sit at the park to eat it, he irons his shirt.

I have come to respect his integrity and honesty. He is honest even when it is inconvenient.

He quietly goes to work each day to provide for our family and encourages me to stay home with the children. He has 100% supported me in project homeschool, even talking me back into confidence when I have days when I’m convinced I failing and should just quit. When I’m worried and full of anxiety, he is great at asking me questions until I can calm down and discover a solution or realize that nothing is really wrong after all.

He is pretty great. I’ll keep him.