Anniversary(s)

Yesterday was my third wedding anniversary with my third wife.

This morning I did some calculating. Adding up my years of marriage to various wives (one at a time, of course), I came up with the number 25. I am presently 55 years old, so this means I have spent 30 of my years unmarried, 25 married.

I was first married at 20 years of age, but to be fair I will calculate adulthood, along with a marriageable state, from the age 18.

(This math is beginning to become difficult).

So . . .

I find that I have been with wife for 25 of my 37 adult years.

My immediate sense is that this cannot be right. I must take the math to an accountant for verification. I cannot remember being in a state of un-wife-ed-ness for 12 years. True, these 12 were spaced out over time, not consecutive, yet it still seems a more generous chunk of time than I can account for.

Where was I during these years, I wonder.

This may be something that would bear further investigation. It may, for instance, be of interest to my children, or my grandchildren. But probably not.

I think that for roughly half these 12 years I was stuck in daycare, and for the other half stuck in a bottle. Details, however, are lacking.

If you have the number sequence 9-13-3, what number comes next?

Again, I would guess in this case that certain details and variables are lacking.

I remember when I turned 50 having the sense that I had only just begun to live. Up to that point I had been too busy. Or married. But at 50 my ship had finally drifted free of the dock, all the ropes undone and hanging loose.

Then I was diagnosed with MS. Now I'm not saying that MS ended my life or anything like that, but it has kind of cramped my style. It is difficult to take the tiger by the tail when you can't stay awake long enough to hold on.

Better then to be caged than killed, I suppose. Although the two likely add to one and the same sum in the end.

**Author's note: It occurred to me after posting the above that some substantial portion of these foggy 12 years of un-wife-ed-ness can be accounted for in the state of engage-ed-ness that from time to time existed. As such, I will subtract 4 years and 2 months from the 12 unmarried years, leaving a balance of 7 years and 8 months.