When They Surprise You

He does it because he almost lost me.  He worries.  A lot.

So his look of relief - when I announced that I didn't think I was physically up to walking in January in D.C. with thousands of other people for miles and miles even though were I able to go I would, for sure - wasn't unexpected.

So tonight, when I said that if I could get on a bus and sleep all the way to Washington, arriving at just the right time and dropped off as close as possible to wherever we wanted to be and then picked up at a logical location and driven home, he surprised me.

After 46 years together, surprises are few and far between.

"Well, why don't you go on-line and see if there's a bus company that will do that?"

The weather's going to be fine.  JannyLou's going and so is my gynecologist.  She doesn't have a pussy hat, but she has t-shirts in a similar vein.

"Will I worry? Of course I will.  And please don't ask me to go with you (TBG does not do crowds.) But if there is one peace-time issue that is worth going to Washington for, it's this.  And I totally get your need to go; it's such a you thing to do."

It's 33 hours across I-10 or $1000 for a change-planes-trip and 2 days and 16 hours on 7 different buses and Amtrak has Coach seats for 51 hours so I'm looking for another way to speak out that day, but I do it with a great big smile on my face.

For almost five decades, I've listened to TBG sing the praises of strong women.  Women's rights are human rights and human rights are women's rights seems so obvious to him.  He'll be the first to tell you that a civilization can be judged by the way it treats women.  I wasn't surprised that he thought it was the right thing to do.

I was surprised that his worry about the future of America outweighed his worry about the safety of his wife.  I was surprised that he wanted me to go. He wanted me to make a statement because a statement needed to be made and I was the person to make it.  Of course he would worry; he worries whenever I walk out the door.  It's the way it is when someone you care about goes to the grocery store and ends up with bullet wounds.

But for this, for standing up to misogyny and disrespect, against the lies and the nihilism and the obvious disregard for anything beyond his own small mindedness, for this President (for President he surely will be) - for this he would worry but not worry-enough-more-to-matter.

That was a big surprise... and, then again, maybe it shouldn't have been.

It's a sign of the times, my friends.