Only love, only love can leave such a mark
But only love, only love can heal such a scar – U2, Magnificent
Can you tell I love the new U2 album? The song, Magnificent, not only has that classic ambient guitar reverb that makes their music so identifiable, but the lyrics this time are so mature and reflect the new angle that this band has taken. I don’t like all the songs on the album, but there are some new classics which will be part of their legacy.
The song has been added to my running music and really helps drive me up and down the San Francisco hills and reminds me of all my wife’s struggles and scars from her struggles over the past year. Ironically as my wife gets ready for her (hopefully) final surgery to reduce the scarring and any kind of residual malformations, we are not at all worried and our love for each other grows more and more each day. Communication and understanding are by far better than ever (she still is the world’s worst back seat driver, LOL) and when we miscommunicate the issues just dissipate more quickly than ever.
For those who are wondering, and without going into great detail, plastic surgery (why plastic anyway?) is a bit of an art form. The most significant factor is the technical skill and artistic sense of the surgeon. Without excellent technical skill and the eye of an artist, results can range from failure to an aesthetically displeasing outcome. My wife is just having some scar revisions done so that they heal correctly. Additionally there is some asymmetry going on that is probably more of an issue for me visually. While I don’t really mind, my wife can see it on my face and thus wants me to be real in all my emotions for her. “No secrets and no sympathy” she tells me. I’m trying. The Lord knows I’m trying. Yes, that means when I don’t like her cooking I must tell her rather than to hold my nose and swallow. What can I say, I’m not a good poker player when it comes to my wife. She knows I’m an open book.
It is TRULY magnificent how she has now out-done me in dreaming big and enjoying life and being honest in one’s feelings. It is always something I felt like I had to pull teeth with but now she’s pulling me along. Now I’m feeling like I can’t keep up. I actually decided I needed to go get a check up soon. Although I’m scared to find out if I have anything wrong other than high cholesterol, hardened arteries, etc, I just would like to have our family have a year of normalcy and fear having to drag my own family into another inconsistent year of health. I do finally want to get some biopsies done on something that my doctors have said for years “is nothing”. I just want that peace of mind.
Peace of mind is a hard thing to get these days. Economic reports of 11.4MM Americans unemployed and that doesn’t even include those who are underemployed. That is crazy when you think that the state of Ohio is only 11.6MM people. Basically the whole state of Ohio would be unemployed.
SO what should we do? What’s not working? I personally think the government should institute a national home mortgage interest rate of 4%. Anyone can negotiate a 30 year fixed mortgage at that rate as long as they qualify. This should be done without closing costs or prepayment penalties if you are re0financing. We need to stop bailing out the banks and start bailing out the people who have money with the banks. This will prevent more de-valued housing from falling onto bank books. It will also stimulate the economy for those who still have some excess income so that they can throw it into the economy. Those who own their homes outright can take a secured loan and use that money to make improvements on their homes or spend it. The current recovery plan just bails out more people who don’t have jobs to afford their mortgages in the first place. It isn’t helping.