Thursday, October 14, 2010

Name changing and marriage

I obviously should have taken care of this a MILLION years ago, but I finally sent out my passport to get my named changed. Remember when I got married? Yeah- that's how long ago I should have dealt with this. I finally decided when we bought our tickets to Belize, that now would be an appropriate time to make this final upgrade. The passport arrived today, and my favorite bit is that the inside cover has a picture of the moon- which is now the next place I want a visa stamp from. Satisfyingly, this is the last big name change that I am going to worry about. Four years later, I guess I am really committed to this marriage. (I joke!)

I've been listening to a lot of Mumford & Sons this week (love the album), which, being Folk music is all about honorable love and honorable death and pious heartbreak. It puts one in an introspective frame of mind. This one line in particular has really gotten stuck in my head (due in part to the rockin' banjo)...

Love that will not betray you, dismay or enslave you,
It will set you free
Be more like the man you were made to be.
-Sigh No More

While I think we can argue about whether or not I am living the life I was meant to live, it does seem quite plain to me that without Matt around, I'd be living a much suckier version of this life. I'm not sure I would have been brave enough to venture to grad school, let alone so far from home. I surely wouldn't have the time, energy and leverage to pursue the other things I've done since I've been here (ceramics, WISC, teaching...). There would be no really compelling reason for me to leave work before dinner, or to ever come to the conclusion that working more doesn't mean more gets done. All the little emotional dramas of grad school would be the main emotion of my life, which would make them much harder to bear. Most details of my life are quite unlike folk music, I'll give'em the affectionate description of love.

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