Celebration Weekend Interlude: For Eva at fifty.

Eva-love.

I just got finished writing about your selflessness. About how, when you do something for you, you feel the need to do something else for us as a kind of compensation.
This is lovely, of course, and sincerely appreciated, but you know what? It's not necessary. You know why? Because you are part of us and we are part of you. When you do things to "spoil" yourself...you're doing those things for us.

I'm glad you're taking the spotlight this weekend. You deserve it. We know that you are, at heart, the facilitator: you're much more comfortable behind the scenes,  making sure things go off without a hitch no matter what hitches get thrown your way. Among your many talents and skills, your facility at facilitating is nonpareil. The thing is, without facilitators, things fall apart. I know that without you, we would. And people like you, who keep life humming along, deserve the spotlight at least as much as those who like to cavort in it. Arguably much, much more.

Readers, if you only knew the battles Eva has fought and continues to fight, and the battlefield victories she has racked up. Much of it is private, of course, to be disclosed only by Eva if and when she sees fit. But she is an inspiration among inspirations.

I have been blessed with knowing and loving many warriors in my life. Eva, You are not among them. No, you lead them. You have been thrown to the wolves so many times, and each time you come back leading the pack. What's truly amazing is that while you are battle-hardened, you have maintained that internal softness that allows you to truly see and respond empathetically to the pain and tribulation of others. You would have every right to be jaded, and to lash out at the unfairness that has been a near-constant companion to you over the past eight years especially. You would have every right to withdraw, to become bitter, to tell the world to go fuck itself.

Yet you don't do that. You engage. You see every setback as a new opportunity. You love without measure and without condition.

Like all special people, you think you're not all that special. I'm here to tell you and the world that you are. You are.

You've written a blog--it will be the next one published here--that characterizes you perfectly. It assesses the current situation, acknowledges all the challenges you face, and resolutely looks forward to the future.

I'm always going to be in that future, and I'm proud to say so. I admire you, respect you, strive to emulate you insofar as I can, and most of all...I love you.

I love you, Eva.

Your husband, who has only seen 20 of your fifty years but who loves  all of you, always.