{"id":1110,"date":"2013-02-14T18:26:42","date_gmt":"2013-02-15T00:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/?p=1110"},"modified":"2013-02-14T18:26:42","modified_gmt":"2013-02-15T00:26:42","slug":"my-favorite-column-and-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/my-favorite-column-and-why\/","title":{"rendered":"My Favorite Column, And Why"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In nearly 31 years of writing a column every week, I have written my share of stinkers and a few of which I am fond. Most land somewhere in-between. I can say straight up that my favorite column was published five years ago, a few weeks after I moved back to my hometown of Longview. You\u2019ll understand why in a moment.<\/p>\n

The piece was titled \u201cUnpacking a Passel of Books.\u201d It was about how I enjoy unpacking boxes of my books after moving. Doing so is a way to reacquaint myself with old friends who have stuck with me through life\u2019s winding roads \u20141,500 or so volumes collected over a lifetime of loving to read. As I wrote then, \u201cI love books, the way they smell, feel in my hands, and the treasures that lie within.\u201d While I now read most newspapers and a few magazines online, I steadfastly resist reading books in that manner.<\/p>\n

A few days after that column ran, I received an email from a woman who asked if I would like to meet for coffee, to get acquainted. She liked my columns and thought we might become friends, as long as I was not married or otherwise encumbered. I wasn\u2019t, so I used Google, that great online detective, to learn she was a college professor and thus likely not a serial killer. I replied that I would be delighted to meet for coffee. We agreed to do so a few days later.<\/p>\n

When the time came, I walked up the alley from the newspaper office to the coffee shop. She crossed the alley as I got there, a beautiful woman with wild brown hair blowing in the breeze. Julie recognized me from my photo in the paper and called out my name. Talk about having me from hello. I realize it sounds like a corny movie scene, but I knew then I had found the love of my life. We have been together since that day five years ago.<\/p>\n

We talked in the coffee shop as if we had known each other for years, went on a date the next night, and for a long walk the day after that. Soon I met her daughter Abbie, then 10 years old. I quickly learned to love Abbie as well for her intelligence, beauty and independence.<\/p>\n

Julie and I became engaged nine months after we met. Then life tossed some curveballs, as it is prone to do. My too-small house got stuck on the market when the real estate crash occurred.\u00a0 The newspaper business went south, and I headed north for a time, then down to Austin, taking jobs where I could find them. Finally we decided to throw caution to the winds and get married even if we couldn\u2019t live under the same roof. We lived a commuter engagement and then marriage for many months.<\/p>\n

At last we live as a family in the same house, though it took three-and-a-half years, four moves on my part, and a lot of prayer to figure it out. There is plenty left to figure out. There always is in a marriage, especially if you\u2019re the guy. Especially this guy.<\/p>\n

Some evenings I watch as Julie \u2014 my Beautiful Mystery Companion as I call her \u2014 sits on the couch preparing for her next day\u2019s class or reading, usually flanked by our dogs, Rosie and Sam. And I still can\u2019t believe my luck. To find a love like ours this late in life is a blessing I neither expected nor deserved. But I plan to hold on to it as fiercely as I can, because I know from experience how rarely it comes along.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a great, if at times crazy, five years, Julie. I love you, darling.<\/p>\n

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