Unconventionally Ordinary

February 13, 2009

This morning I drove into our little town to pick up a couple Valentine’s cards for D and was only in the card shop for a few minutes before the clerk, an older woman, asked if I needed any help.

“Do you have a separate section for Valentine’s Day for wives?” I said.
“You mean for a wife to give her husband?” she asked.
“No, I’m looking for cards to give my wife” I answered.

And without so much as a twitch or dramatic pause, she smiled and showed me to the proper section, which just so happened to be less than two feet in front of my face marked with a placard that oddly enough read Wife. “Dopey, party of one, your table is ready.”

A young woman looking through the card section for husbands overheard my conversation with the clerk and after a few minutes of browsing side by side she said, “I can’t decide. Do I go with a romantic card or a funny one?” I answered with a wink, “How about going with a funny card and you provide the romance?” “Ah, now there’s an idea!” she said.

As a married lesbian living in a world that continues to be filled with prejudice, hate, and fear about our ordinary lives and dreams, I never take such uneventful exchanges for granted and I never will until every gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered young person and adult is treated with no less respect or dignity than their neighbor.

The dream lives on. The work continues.

Posted in Equality, Storytelling