"I Have the Best Wife"

Over the weekend, Hubby wasn't feeling well. At one point he wanted a massage, but I was tired. It didn't happen. So, last night I surprised him and had the massage table set up in the family room. He saw it as soon as he came in from the garage and said with glee, "Oh boy."
He also added, "I have the best wife!" It's always a pleasure to hear.
Once he got on the table and I had started rubbing his neck and shoulders, then started on his left arm and hand, he said kind of dreamily, "I hope Sonny Boy is as happy with his wife as I am with mine." I quoted my favorite talk show lady, Dr. Laura, and said, "Choose wisely, treat kindly," from her book, The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands.
Since Hubby has told Sonny Boy "you make good decisions," since the kid was crawling, I think he's embedded that value into Sonny Boy's every last brain cell. But Sonny Boy is not yet 21, so the wife thing should be about the last choice that's on his mind...or even on the radar, as far as I'm concerned.
I was married for the first time at 22. Not so good for me. After all, I had seen the warning signs and ignored them. Then came divorce and a happy (?) single life. But looking back, I don't think I was nice enough to be married until 5 or 6 years ago. Fortunately for me, Hubby saw all the potential and happiness to be attained in my smiling face 22 years ago.
By nice enough I mean big enough to let the nagging sensation pass without mention, the itch to gossip go unheeded, the cloud of "it's all about me," to move on.
When I look back, it seems so ridiculous to have wagered a loving relationship to get my way no matter the consequences.
When the time comes for Sonny Boy to decide on the woman he wants to marry, I hope his memories from our marriage take into consideration all the good and bad on how to choose a good woman, a kind woman, a happy woman.
Since Dr. Laura's book came out, I learned about the easy capacity men have to be happy. They don't want to talk about their inner most confessions like women do. They don't want to hold a grudge. They don't want to be punished for some infraction they had no idea of what it could have been. We, as women, love that stuff. Why?
Are our inner workings the stuff soap operas are made of? Are we so simple as to think life circles our being as if we were the sun? We have to learn to control our crazy selfish impulses while men are the here and now, the what you see is what you get, the give me love and I'll do whatever you need. They are doggies, we are the cats. They have masters, we have staff.
We have all the control for the better or worse. And life is blissful when we bat our eyelashes at our hubbies, when we dress up to look cute, when we are a girlfriend and not a wife, when we don't start a fight or continue one, when we don't bitch until the cows come home, when we smile, fix a snack, love physically, mentally, and joyfully, when we ask, "What can I get you?"
Our house is Casa de Thompson. What's yours?
www.youtube.com/drlaura