In Our Own Weird Way, We Work

   I saw the card in the rack. There was a picture of a cat and a dog curled up together. Inside the card it said, "In our own weird way, we work." I bought it. That is a good explanation of why C and I have been together for so long.
   I don't think anyone would have ever thought we would make a good couple. I'm very much a northerner and he comes from good ole southern boy stock. He grew up among the Southern Baptist Convention. I was raised among Lutherans. He was popular in school and played sports. I wasn't popular, edited the high school newspaper and preferred to spend my time reading. He has never met a stranger and mixes easily with people. I'm shy and awkward around people I don't know. He likes silly jokes and movies. I prefer to be serious and get motion sick in movie theatres.
  If you look at us on paper, the only things we have in common are the fact that we are both human beings and we both have hair that is going white.
  We actually do have a few things in common. We both love music. C likes to write music, I like to write words. We like to walk and see new places and things. We enjoy nature. We like animals (especially cats). We both know hard times. We enjoy each other's company.
   It looks a bit better, doesn't it. However, if you wrote a list of the things we don't have in common and compared it to what we have in common, the former list might be a bit longer. How do we make this work?
   We balance each other. His ability to be comfortable with anyone balances my shyness. My seriousness balances his silliness. He likes to play music and I like to listen to him while he plays. We encourage each other. We support each other. We love each other.
   That, I think, is really the key for us. It's not a matter of having so much in common. It's what we do with our differences. We have the perfect balance. We have enough in common to keep us together and enough differences to keep it interesting.