Nothing to Lose, Much to Gain

My husband received some devastating news on Wednesday – he was let go from his job. The end-result of this is that we are no longer buying our house. We spent several tear-filled hours that afternoon, and spent much of Thursday in a post-stress daze punctuated by many comforting hugs and cuddles before piling into the car on Friday to get away from it all for the weekend (visiting my family). On Monday, we jump headlong into Planning The Future.

We’re very much trying to look at this experience as an opportunity instead of a loss. Back in February, just after returning from a visit with my in-laws in Florida, we were lamenting the northeastern US winters, but we decided to stick around because of O’s job. In today’s economy, one doesn’t just walk away from steady, seemingly stable employment.

However, when that employment instead walks away from you… you become suddenly free to go wherever you want, or wherever the Fates may take you. I don’t necessarily agree with Janis’ definition of “freedom,” but we definitely hope for plenty to gain.

Photo credit

Yes, I AM Proud

My husband, the U.S. citizen

As a high schooler, I really resented having to recite the Pledge of Allegience.  To me, those words we were speaking were a great idea, but they weren’t the reality of the country we actually lived in, in the 1990s.  To be honest, I don’t think my teenaged self really understood what we have as Americans.

We live in a country where we are free to speak, to dress however we like, to marry whatever race (and in five states now, whatever gender) we so choose.  Certainly those freedoms are imperfect – and it was that imperfection on which I used to lay my focus – but we have them.  To think otherwise is to really display one’s ignorance of the world outside our own backyard.

There are places in the world where I could be killed for speaking with any man who is not a relative.  Or for wearing the gym shorts and t-shirt I have on right now.  There are places where even the imperfect tolerance of other religions, races, orientations, etc. we have, simply do not exist.

It’s taken me years to realize what I have.  To understand that yes, I still need to keep fighting for the causes I believe in, but that I at least have the freedom to keep up that fight.  In this country of ours, we have hope.  We can dream, and we can make those dreams a reality.  And that, readers, is why the man up there in that picture is smiling.  He is one of us now.  And look how proud he is!