A Good Catch

               Just this week, I had a “Me, too,” moment as I sat on the end of my bed getting my shoes on for the day.  When my husband (of 45 years) and I first started dating, he sketched a simple but impressive baseball player with straight hair poking out the top and sides of his cap dressed in a striped uniform.  The shirt on the young, almost cartoon-like boy says, “Aces” right across the chest.  At the bottom, right under his feet, my husband wrote, “Sure am glad I caught you.”  As I looked at the drawing with the familiar sentiment on the wall, in my mind I replied, “Me, too,” without initially realizing the connection to what has become a movement today.

 

               My “me, too,” means something very different from the terrible stories so many women are finally sharing.  Thankfully, the man who caught me loved me fervently, and remained happy with “his catch”-- and told me so--over all our years (46) before his sudden death last August.  He was a physical education teacher and coach, working alongside women and men who talked about how much they learned from him, how much they held him in high regard.  Unfortunately, there was an assistant principal at his school, a married man, who was known to treat the young office ladies in sexually inappropriate ways.  I would imagine stories could be told about him that would easily fit into the “me, too,” movement.

 

               At this time, it is and has been important for women, some very young women, to tell their stories, some bringing down very powerful and rich men in our society, because these ladies have spoken their truth to power.  Sexually improper behavior is pervasive, destructive and definitely not loving no matter what it may claim.  However, after my moment responding to my husband’s words, it occurred to me that perhaps we need to also be reminded that many men all around us, maybe our husbands, our bosses, our neighbors, our favorite celebrities, are not men behaving badly.  To the contrary, they treat others respectfully in what they say and what they do.

 

               Looking at my husband’s work of art and words of love bless me and remind me how very fortunate I have been to love and be loved by fine men—my husband and my father before him.  Let us hope that there will be fewer and fewer unfortunate “Me, too” stories and more occasions to celebrate the love that blesses and builds us up, as individuals and as a society.

Posted by Rayma Kay laughlin at 12:34 PM