aadler | Back in the saddle

Something like three years ago, when I was operating as part of a two-man team out in Tarin Kowt, Afghanistan, I said to my team chief, in regard to my long-failed and long-ended marriage:

“Imagine spending a third of your life with someone for whom the words ‘psychotic bitch’ and ‘the finest person I have ever known’ were equally applicable.”

My former wife really had skated at the edge of psychosis. And she really was admirable beyond my ability to describe: hard worker, conscientious teacher, dedicated nurse, steadfast friend, devoted mother, earnest servant of God. With all the anger and bitterness between us, she still was the standard against which I measured myself, and a substantial part of what was ME came about as a direct result of my efforts to live up to her example.

Most of the things that had her so close to crazy, are gone now. And all of the qualities I respected in her have grown.

And, two days after Christmas, we remarried.

This looks to be a very good year.