We are in the midst of several days of something too rare in this desert, continued rain. My spouse Kristine and I have spent 99 % of our married life together in southern California. It is a desert that is topographically not unlike modern Israel. I am 100% Ashkenazi or Eastern European Jew. She is 100% European non-Jew.
I love the desert climate here. I suppose it’s in my genes, or is that jeans, the invention of a Jewish entrepreneur in 19th century northern California, Levi.
Kris tolerates the relatively non- seasonal climate. She doesn’t like visiting the pure, desert climate of Arizona. Winters to her artistic eye (She is a painter) are too bright when the sun is shining.
It was George Bernard Shaw who claimed, “Marriage is an alliance entered into by a man who can’t sleep with the window shut, and a woman who can’t sleep with the window open. “ Sure a 41 year marriage has its obstacles.
On the other hand years of unhealthy inbreeding including my paternal grandparents, who were cousins, have been broken in our adult children. How beautifully the two disparate trees have come together in our children and figuratively in Kristine and me. The differences are both the cause of difficulty and the foundation of the good times. Life’s like that. Don’t you think?
H. Robert Rubin, Amazon best selling memoirist with two books available on Amazon, Look Backward Angel and How Did I Get Through This?
Pilgrim on a Long, Long Journey 