LONG MARRIAGES AND RIGHT ANSWERS

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter –

Monday I did errands and walked The Polly Grimshaw Trail [1] and stopped by St. Mark’s Beside the Inner-City Hay Field to see if I could get some funeral business from suicidal VBS teachers.

When I returned home, there were no curtains on the window in my study. Apparently they had been crying out for laundering, although I had felt no need or desire for cleaner curtains, but that was okay.

Apparently they had not been returned to the window because they had not been ironed. I felt no need or desire for unwrinkled curtains, but apparently they wanted or needed that extra step, and that was okay.

Apparently they received ironing on Tuesday, for in the morning, the lower-half curtains were in place on the window when I returned from walking. There is a ruffly top curtain, however, that was not in place. But that was okay.

After lunch Helen said, “Do you want to take a nap or help me hang the curtains in your study?” I have been married a long time, so I knew the right answer.

Helen has always been appreciative of my willingness to help. Once she told me, “Thank you for all you’re doing around the house today, including the stuff you don’t know about yet.”

I pulled furniture away from the window. Helen processed in with the clean curtains, that looked a lot to me like the old curtains, and proceeded to select a pair of pliers from the stein on my desk. [This sort of thing happens quite a bit at our house, and so instead of keeping all the tools in the garage, I have a selection of pliers and screwdrivers on my desk.]

She said, “You should probably be doing this, because you can reach higher than I can, but I really like to do this sort of thing.”

She proceeded to use the pliers to re-shape the curtain rod attachment on the right end, so that the rod would no longer fit on it, and then dropped one of the nails, which she could not find, and said, “Maybe you should do this.”

I reshaped the attachment to its original condition. There was a one-step footstool available, but I fall off if I don’t have something to lean against, so I went to the garage and got the step ladder and climbed up with the curtain rod with the fluffy clean and ironed curtains and fitted the rod ends down onto the attachments.

Helen said, “It must be frustrating to be married to me.” I’ve been married a long time. I knew the correct answer to that.

John Robert McFarland

1] I envy Polly. If one gets to have an eponymous architectural or geographical feature, I think a trail would be really cool.