An Ode to Jackwraith
I've been writing this blog for a few years now, on and off. I started it out of a fascination with Joe Mama. I would never have known who Joe Mama was if not for Jack, who had been copying and pasting his posts ever since the one about the brothel in Germany (it was Germany, wasn't it?) And I'd been saving them, mostly because I saved all Jack's emails to me. Souvenirs of his thoughts.
But I've never really written about Jack here. Too personal, I thought. He'd hate it.Jack announced on the board recently that he and I are calling it quits. So I decided that if he can tell of you that, then it must be okay for me to write about him.
You all know he's a pretty smart guy. He skipped two grades in school and graduated when he was 15. Then he got accepted to Michigan and graduated at 19. He had to permanently leave his parents' house when he was 16 due to some annoying family business that I won't share here. It's no wonder he relates to JM. They have stuff in common. Jack's been working really hard at trying to make me happy since we got married almost twelve years ago. But to do that, he did some things that didn't make him happy. The paradox is that I can't be happy living with him when he's not happy. There's a mathematical equation in here somewhere, and the result is Jack's a good guy.
Marriages, we've discovered, by watching all of yours and by living ours, are tricky things. They're a little like long bicycle races. You start out with a goal in mind. You believe in yourself and you believe you'll finish the race. But you don't know the course that first time out. You don't know the curves and the cliffs. You don't know how steep the hills will be. You can't imagine how great it will feel on the downhill stretches where you can let loose and gravity does all the work and you just have to hold on and steer.
Jack and I didn't realize that marriage requires endurance training and that if one of you wants to sit down and rest and the other doesn't, you can get pulled apart. In spite of the best intentions.
Jack and I will be friends forever. You only have to look at a picture of us on our wedding day to know it. I could say something corny now about how I think we'll eventually finish the race together. But I really don't know what happens now. I'll be around though. I don't see my life without him in it somehow.
But I've never really written about Jack here. Too personal, I thought. He'd hate it.Jack announced on the board recently that he and I are calling it quits. So I decided that if he can tell of you that, then it must be okay for me to write about him.
You all know he's a pretty smart guy. He skipped two grades in school and graduated when he was 15. Then he got accepted to Michigan and graduated at 19. He had to permanently leave his parents' house when he was 16 due to some annoying family business that I won't share here. It's no wonder he relates to JM. They have stuff in common. Jack's been working really hard at trying to make me happy since we got married almost twelve years ago. But to do that, he did some things that didn't make him happy. The paradox is that I can't be happy living with him when he's not happy. There's a mathematical equation in here somewhere, and the result is Jack's a good guy.
Marriages, we've discovered, by watching all of yours and by living ours, are tricky things. They're a little like long bicycle races. You start out with a goal in mind. You believe in yourself and you believe you'll finish the race. But you don't know the course that first time out. You don't know the curves and the cliffs. You don't know how steep the hills will be. You can't imagine how great it will feel on the downhill stretches where you can let loose and gravity does all the work and you just have to hold on and steer.
Jack and I didn't realize that marriage requires endurance training and that if one of you wants to sit down and rest and the other doesn't, you can get pulled apart. In spite of the best intentions.
Jack and I will be friends forever. You only have to look at a picture of us on our wedding day to know it. I could say something corny now about how I think we'll eventually finish the race together. But I really don't know what happens now. I'll be around though. I don't see my life without him in it somehow.
posted by Salomé at 2:35 PM
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