I cannot get through the first sentence of that gorgeous piece of writing without crying. I was in the midst of 100 bicycle crunches while watching TV with my 10-year old son this morning when the screech of breaking news punctuated the airwaves. After waking up to news of the horror in France this morning, I quickly reached for the remote control, ready to turn off the television. My heart drummed a panicked beat. We had just spoken of the horror in Charleston, and I wasn’t ready or equipped to talk about the massacres in France as well.
Instead my heart somersaulted in joy as SCOTUS finally legalized marriage for all. Justice, liberty, equality…FOR ALL. I wept. I screamed. I turned up the volume and cheered. I exclaimed to my young son that we were watching history unfold and that he would not know an adulthood without marriage equality. He smiled and then laughed, asking with a crooked toothed grin, “Even in North Carolina, Mommy? Amendment One is finally gone?” “YES!” I exclaimed. And we watched the news wrapped in awe and delight.
We just returned from a month abroad in India and Portugal. I have many stories but few words. I was gleefully out of touch while we traveled. I returned home to news of the pool party in Texas, the Charleston shooting, and more gun related deaths and accidents than I can recount. It was all too much to come home to. I’ve been slow to dive back in. I needed the fuel of today’s good news.
I’m not going to let the haters get to me this time. Bigotry is on the wrong side of history and the wrong side of humanity.
Gay marriage does not threaten my marriage. That notion is just nonsense. In fact, those beautiful words have made me look my own marriage with a renewed sense of appreciation. Mac Daddy and I just celebrated 15 years of marriage in March. Like many couples, we fall into the rut of routine. There are rocky roads, and sometimes our paths don’t cross. We don’t bask in the same newlywed glow. But I love my husband. I love our friendship and partnership. He is my biggest fan and most supportive cheerleader. He sees in me what I fail to see in myself. Reading those words of Justice Kennedy have made me appreciate my marriage and my husband all the more. “Two people become something greater than they once were.” Indeed.