Life With My Wife

Life With… is a stock-sort of title beginning, but this post is about a special aspect of Life With that gives meaning to the whole Life With My Wife concept.

Let me explain.

Yesterday, while we were watching our favorite college football team win their game, I watched my wife cheer a breakaway run. She then turned to me and said (quite accurately):

Did you see that fold block! It got [insert running back’s name] to the next level, and then he cut back against the grain and took it all the way!

We even have a little ritual that we do after each score – a high five followed with a fist bump explosion – the latter part was HER add-on.

Life with my wife is FUN! But here’s the real reason why – and it’s NOT football.

When we were first married, my wife didn’t know a first down from a touchdown. Now, she knows football well enough to evaluate the subtle nuances of a play – the influence of down/distance/field position, the offensive formation being run, the defense, and yes, even the blocking.

I’m a former player and coach. (Yes, disabled people CAN play/coach sports.) During that first autumn of our marriage, she asked me to teach her about football. ‘How much do you want to know,’ I asked. Her reply? ‘Everything.’

I don’t think she realized, at the time, exactly what that entailed. But teach her I did – diagrams on napkins, slo-mo play reviews – she even wanted quizzes! But this isn’t about me or my teaching/coaching because she didn’t HAVE to learn it. I love her – no matter what. But learning all about football was HER “I love YOU” to me.

And now, every Saturday in the Fall (and sometimes later if we make it to a bowl game), I get to enjoy her extra special I love YOUs anew as she claps, and yells, and evaluates, and high fives (with fist bump explosions) our team’s journeys up and down the gridiron.

Indeed, I’m so blessed that, amid the billions of people on this planet, she said yes to me. Life with my wife is better than football – and that’s saying A LOT!

Pardon me, I have to go get some more I love YOUs; the highlights of yesterday are on today.

Food for thought.

Mac