This is my favorite human

 

To be clear, when I say "my favorite human," I'm talking about the person on the left in that photo, not the sketchy guy on the right.

That person, as you may already know or would at least surmise, is my wife Terry. I have known her for 35 years and have been married to her for 29. She is my best friend, my wife, and I can confirm (having watched her birth five not-so-tiny humans) is also the mother of my children.

I have said this before, but it bears repeating: By a wide margin, she is the single most impressive person I know. She is beautiful, funny, kind, honest, caring, resourceful, and always fun to be around. That is a neat trick if you can manage to pull it off as well as Terry does.

It is not exactly rare for high school sweethearts still to be together in their early 50s, but it's not commonplace, either. We have changed as people over the years, and yet here we are. Still.

When it comes to me, she has seen the whole show many, many times over. She knows all of my stories, all of my lame jokes, everything I like, the few things I dislike, the things I do well, the things I don't do well at all, my insecurities, my idiosyncracies, and my favorite Starbucks drink besides the boring old tall blonde roast I usually get.

Having a person who knows you so well and decides you're worth sticking around for is a precious gift. I have done nothing to deserve it, yet there she is every day. You simply cannot take something like that for granted.

One of the great privileges of my life over the last 25 years has been building a career, the main focus of which is to support her and the kids financially. It is the reason I get out of bed in the morning and, considering there is food on the table and the lights still work, probably my greatest achievement (well, that and appearing on two game shows, which I never, ever talk about and of course won't bring up here).

Not that there is usually a point to these blog posts, but if there is one today, it is this: If you have a person in your life who has been with you a long time, and barring something unforeseen is likely to be there a long time more, appreciate that blessing.

Because that's what it is: a blessing.