Because She Was Born

My beautiful wife turned 46 this week. What follows isn’t exactly a funny list, but it is a fun list. If you haven’t scribbled down the ways your life is better because someone else was born, I recommend it. It was a gift for her, sure, but it’s funny how expressions of gratitude are also a gift for the giver.

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Because Becky was born, I have gotten to fall in love. And after I fell in love, I got to grow in love. That second part is the good part, the meaningful part, the part that unlocks everything else.

My wife, a photographic interpretation.

Because Becky was born, I have gotten to have a wonderful marriage. Marriage ain’t for everybody, but our marriage is for me—for us—for our kids, our family, our friends. The marriage is the lighthouse, leading us back home when we wander too far into the dark.

Because Becky was born, I have gotten to have a Hall of Fame best friend. Yes, there are other friends in that Hall of Fame, but she is the cornerstone of the permanent collection.

Because Becky was born, I have gotten to be a father. Yeah, yeah, yeah, fathering children comes pretty easily. So let me revise: because Becky was born, I have gotten to serve as a father. And nobody has helped me understand more than she has that parenting is a state of action, not just a state of being.

Because Becky was born, I have gotten to laugh and laugh and laugh… This whole All Kinds of Funny experiment? Her idea. And when you’re constantly looking for reasons to laugh, life’s hard knocks turn into knock-knock jokes pretty damn quick. For the nay-sayers, I present Exhibit A, Exhibit B, and Exhibit C.

“I look at the world and I find the funny in it, because there’s funny in everything. No matter how ugly it may be, there’s a funny way to look at it.” —Charlie Murphy

Because Becky was born, I have gotten to be an amateur zookeeper. Dogs, cats, barn cats (notably different from regular old cats), 80-pound sulcata tortoises, dozens of chickens, horses, bunny rabbits—so much fur, so many shenanigans, wild and domesticated.

Because Becky was born, I have gotten to live in a magical treehouse—a hand-built cabin with a couple of secret passages, a treehouse, a workshop, an imaginarium—a veritable castle for creativity and imagination.

This was also her idea.

Because Becky was born, I have gotten to write and tell stories and build all sorts of amazing projects. Sure, some people manage to make a go of the creative life without support, but nobody loves them and they have a small and sad inner life.

Because Becky was born, I have gotten to eat the best (and worst) food on the planet with the best company. Among my favorite meals is our weekly State of the Union Sunday dinner where we knock back a couple of Old Fashioned cocktails and gnaw on habanero hot wings and sliders while discussing the week’s family calendar. Generally speaking, I prefer variety and novelty when it comes to food. This is the exception. It’s one of the great anchors of our married life.

Because Becky was born, I have gotten to know what it’s like to live with sunshine. If you haven’t lived with sunshine, I recommend it. Five stars. 100% certified fresh.

Because Becky was born, I have gotten to have it all—everything this man could want and need.

Happiest of birthdays to my most beautiful wife!

If you want me to send an All Kinds of Funny: Unsolicited love letter (of sorts) to one of your people, click this button:

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All Kinds of Funny and Other Serious Matters, Volume 1 is available in paperback and hardback! Click this link or the image below, and get your copies now!

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If you like Elmore Leonard, Joe Lansdale, or the Coen Brothers, you’ll dig my novella, DIG. If it makes you laugh, cringe, or question your moral compass—do me a solid and leave a quick rating or review.

Get it at this link or click the image below: Dig: A Dark Crime Comedy

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