2002-11-05 - 10:03 p.m.
THE MAN I MARRIED
The phone rang exactly at 6:30 p.m. The ring was familiar. The time itself announced who likely was on the other end. �Hello,� said the voice and I knew I was right.
�Hello,� I replied. �You�re having a good time, you want to stay, and you lost track of time.�
�Yes, yes, and no,� the voice responded.
�Dinner is already in the oven,� I told him. �Anyone who calls after 6:00 runs that risk. Care to try again?�
�Sure,� he said. �Yes, yes, and yes.�
�Well,� I told him. �Have a good time then. I love you.� I hung up amused. Some women wonder what happened to the man they married. Today was proof that man was still around. Mr. Philately was off poll-watching. Call me peculiar but a man who is politically active attracts me. I like the caring. I like the passion. I just wish those qualities existed in a man who could keep track of time but that�s a minor complaint.
We have a perfect division of political labor in this house. I participate in and worry about local races. Mr. Philately does statewide and national ones. I like my politics small. He likes politics writ large. We usually agree on candidates but not always. I prefer to stick to major parties. He has no such self-imposed restrictions. I�m a realist. He�s a bit of a dream. But we work together well.
I cannot imagine not caring who runs the town, the state, and the nation. I hear people tell me that it doesn�t matter but it often does. Even today, when I had to hold my nose to vote for governor, I knew it mattered. One stinks far more than the other. The difference between bad and worse is not imaginary. I hear people say they seek purity in candidates. Purity makes me shudder. Real governing is about brokering the best compromise possible. Anything else is mere posturing. Similarly, real voting is about making the best choice possible.
The man I married, idealistic as he is, understands all of this and translates his understanding into action. He spent all day at the polls making sure that Republicans, in their little green leprechaun vests, who went only into the Democratic stronghold of the City of Milwaukee to combat fraud, did not get over-enthusiastic. He spent the day making sure that everyone who should got to make their choice.
Today he was more interested in the world than my dinner but that�s okay. Hot dogs will wait. I�ll wait. There are more important things today.
And tomorrow once again, I�ll have back the man I married.
LAST YEAR: Selective Listening
LAST FIVE ENTRIES:
The Blister
Bullying
Just What the World Needs
The Little Glimpses
It�s All in How You Look at It
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Copyright 2006 by Ellen |
