Tortoise meets Hare

First of all, before I get into it, may I please have the support of every woman who thinks this is completely disgusting?

MacGyver says it is the only place he can charge his razor, full of little stubbly bits. He says it's the only place that's convenient. He says he needs it to be there when he gets up at 5 am and heads to work for a full day of tireless grinding effort to put food on the table and clothes on our backs...

Okay, that was my imaginative version of what he said. But still. Am I insane to be a little weirded out by a razor charging on my stove?

Thank you for your support.

That being said, I promised MacGyver when I asked if I could write about us today that I would be fair. And so I shall.

The idea occurred to me a few days ago when a friend mentioned that an injury had made her husband a little crabby. I was in shock, because I've never seen her husband without a huge smile on his face. Then I got to wondering - how many people think MacGyver and I always smile and have complete harmony in our home?

Then I laughed. Really, really laughed. MacGyver is laughing too as he reads this, I can see it. Actually he's probably just shaking his head. Love you, Honey.

Here's the real story. Fourteen and a half years ago God thought it would be HILARIOUS to introduce the Tortoise to the Hare. Then he decided to let Hare in on a little secret. "Tortoise is for you. But you're going to have to wait a VERY long time."

I honestly sighed a little when I shook hands with MacGyver the first time and realized that I wasn't going to be getting married and having a family anytime soon. But I cheered up pretty quickly when I realized he was worth it.

All through high school, I dreamed about what my husband would be like. I thought maybe I'd found him a few times. I knew he would have to have the ingenuity of MacGyver, the boyish innocence and morality of the Kid, the depth of Mulder, and the manliness of Sully, because those were my heroes at the time.

And he did. He had every last one of those qualities that I was hoping for. Trouble is, I didn't realize that my man would come with a few of their negative qualities as well. One of them being, as I have mentioned... he's slow.

Not slow of mind. Quite the contrary, he's a genius. He's never met a broken thing he can't put back in working order. Hence his nickname. He has an answer for every scientific, mathematical quandary Eldest can come up with. When she asks me, I just raise my eyebrow and say "Ask your Dad" as my mind spins out of control with the horridness that is scientific math.

No, no, MacGyver is what we shall call... "careful." He's a double triple checker. He's a "let's not rush into anything" sort of guy. He's a "let's get all the facts out on the table and analyze them to death" sort of guy.

Then there's me. I'm a "if it feels right, jump in with both feet and let what happens happen" kind of girl. When we got married and MacGyver realized this, he was horrified. We spent almost every day of our first year of marriage fighting the fight of justice. His cause was "caution" and my cause was "seize the day."

Well, here we are almost ten years later, and we've both changed. We've come to some sort of treaty. In fact, we've come to see the other's major points and embraced them. I can see how it's good to be careful sometimes. He can see that life will pass you by if you wait too long. We know we need the other one to help us be more than we could be by ourselves. So after all, God had a good plan.

But that's not to say that there aren't still occasional battles at Tortoise and Hare's home. That's not to say that sometimes Hare doesn't leave Tortoise in the dust getting tired of waiting for him to catch up. That's not to say that Tortoise doesn't sometimes go slower just to get Hare's dander up...

Yes. We have days. Now we have a referee. Eldest lets us know when we're out of line. Sometimes we purposefully wait until she's sound asleep to argue because she's so good at guilt. And she isn't sound asleep till the wee hours of the morning.

But all this to say is that I'm glad God gave me a Tortoise. Being married to another Hare would not be a fun life. I suppose he could have given me someone more in the middle, but I probably would have found that boring. As much as I hate the drama... I like it a little. Please don't tell MacGyver. Oh wait... he reads this.

The day I married MacGyver I wasn't completely sure that he really wanted to be married to me. Ten years later, I'm amazed at how far we've come. Even in more recent months, I can honestly say that I know he loves me, and that for whatever reason, he's glad he's married to me. And even though it's hard for me to express sometimes, I love him more each day. I'm really really hard on him, I know, but I look up to him for his relentlessness, his courage, his thoughtfulness and his commitment to excellence. He inspires me, helps me be what I'm supposed to be, and he teaches me that it's okay to be a work in progress, because that's what God specializes in.

Thanks for the last ten years, MacGyver. Just think of the possibilities for the next ten.

Maybe you'll even stop charging your razor on the stove.