Sunday, December 21, 2008

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR PARTNER?

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR PARTNER?

No, now think about it. What about after mail and before photographs, how would you describe your partner, friend, mate? It is a fair question. What would you want your family to know?

What if you moved away from home and lived several hundred miles away. If you wrote to your parents, what would you say? Would you list, say occupation? Living situation? It is a hard question, isn't it? But is it?

Here is a description of a women from the man writing to his family in 1890:

Maybe you would like to know what she is like. She is a school teacher, as is her sister. I do not think her father is living so there is just the two girls and the mother. They are Scotch Canadians. She is very small and very pleasant, a jolly little person with dark hair and brown eyes and a pug nose. She is not very homily, or rather one doesn't notice she is homily because she is pleasant. Her sister is quite pretty with light hair and blue eyes. So, who do you think he is going after? The homily one or the pretty one?

If you were going to write--in 25 words or less--a description what would you say?

Granted there are some butt ugly people in my family tree. They would scare anyone that didn't know them. But to use precious space to include homily, no, I don't think so. And I would not have introduced them by saying, "This is my mess of uglies great uncle." (grin)


When I think about my sweet Thomas, I am not thinking about his bald head, although in early conversations a decade or more ago, he did announce to me he had hair loss. There is the realism for you.

And just maybe what I would say about Tom are descriptions buried inside of me and not for public viewing.

Perhaps when you care about someone, whether a partner or a friend, you are, as the movie, "The Enchanted Cottage", where you see the beauty in someone else.

Mark Deming, All Movie Guide wrote, "This romantic fantasy was based on a popular play by Arthur Pinero. Oliver Bradford, played by Robert Young, is a young man who returned from World War II with severe facial scars; while he was engaged to be married before he left, he believes that no one could love him now, and he lives on the brink of suicide.

Oliver meets Laura Pennington played by Dorothy McGuire, a plain young woman who is convinced that her looks will never win her a man. These two lonely people marry, more out of desperation than love, and move into a small cottage which is all that remains of the large estate of Abigail Minnett who lost the rest of her property in a fire. The cottage has been the site of many happy honeymooners over the years, and inside its walls, Oliver and Laura discover that a magical transformation takes place; he regains the handsome features he once possessed, and she becomes beautiful. ..........the outside world does not recognize the beauty that they have found with each other.

If you can not find the words, then, at least, take the time to take them by the hand or ear and say you care.

Give the gift.

e

1 comment:

ELODEE JOHNSON said...

25 words to describe Keith?? You kidding?
Kind
Caring
Courageous
Compassionate
Conservaive
Cautious
Serious
Funny
Friendly
Giving
Hardworking
Dumb
As
A
Rock
Some
Days!