50 Years...
In a couple of months, my parents will have been married for 50 years....50 years....amazing. Growing up as a kid there were times when I didn't understand why my parents were even married. I didn't see the love in their eyes, I didn't see the affection they showed each other...all I saw was a lot of what I felt was emotional abuse directed towards my mom. I used to hate my dad for treating her the way he did. I didn't understand what drove that kind of behavior in him. We never did anything bad, yet the punishments seem so severe in comparison. I didn't understand why my mom tolerated it. Why didn't she ever say anything back to him. Never said a word even though we all knew he was wrong. I always wondered why he was the way he was.... Because of pride? Fuck pride. What about your family and your wife and how they felt? How could he put himself ahead of the things that meant so much more than a stupid thing like pride? I used to get upset at my dad for that....and worse, I got angry at my mom for not being strong enough to stand up for herself and for us.

Interesting how your perspective and perception on things change as you grow older. Now I realize it wasn't that my mom was weak...she was really the strongest one of us all.....she was the glue that kept us all together. 50 years...what an incredibly long time. I look back and I see a lot of the challenges that my parents have gone through together without fully understanding it. 9 kids and a baby along the way when they made that trek to america....it's crazy how they managed all that. I can only imagine all the frustrating and desperate moments they must have gone through. And yet after all that, 50 years later, they are still together...and happier than ever. My parents have a love for each other that is different from the commercialized hallmark that most people associate with. They were brought up in an entirely different world, in another moment of time and who's to make judgement on who they are and what they have become. No matter how hard it was, they stuck together....no matter what. You've got to admire that. Now, when I look at my parents I no longer see what I saw as a kid....it's interesting how you see things through a different set of eyes as you come to understand the things that never used to make sense to you. 50 years....amazing....