Twenty Five Years Ago Today . . .

. . . was the single best day of my life.  I married my dream girl, the beautiful, adventurous, fiercely intelligent Kathleen Moon, who laughed at herself so easily and often I was helpless in love.  When we were married, there was no internet, there were no cell phones, and you listened to your music on cassette tapes.  The Berlin wall still stood, for Pete’s sake. 

We’ve been through a lot in those 25 years.  Law school in Washington DC. Business School in LA. Being charged by both black and momma grizzly bears in Glacier National Park. The Rodney King riots (about as scary as the bears). An earthquake that displaced us from our home for three days, destroyed every dish we owned, and threw our large vacuum tube TV all the way across the room.  Fires. Floods. Investment banking and large law firm jobs, at the same time, in San Francisco. The Internet Bubble bursting. Extended dual unemployment right after we bought our first San Francisco-expensive house and had our first child.  Nine-Eleven and three middle east wars.  Serving as a Bishop. The bankruptcy of  the Company I worked for when we first moved back to Utah. The Great Recession.

Meanwhile, I have watched my wife give birth to three wonderful children, one by caesarian section even though the epidural didn’t take, and selflessly leave a job she enjoyed, talking to CEO’s and CFO’s of public companies regularly, to raise those children with unfathomable patience and love. Through all of that, she has been absolutely unflappable, the calm in the eye of every storm; loving, laughing, faithful, believing, and steadfastly moving forward, step by steady step. The only momentary falter I can recall is when she uttered her death scream while plunging off a bungy-jump platform high over Queenstown, New Zealand.  She is, quite simply, the most amazing woman ever.  I love you sweetheart.  Happy Anniversary.