When
it comes to having amazing women friends, I am blessed, far more than
I deserve.
My
friend, Charli, who at various times has been a long haul truck
driver, a plumber, a painter, a mechanic, a substance abuse
counselor and a fork lift operator - plus being a full time wife,
mother and musician – pulls a bright pink wrench out of her tool
box, gives me a grin and settles in to connect my new gas stove.
Because the old stove is from the days of avocade green and the new
one is current, it's taken several trips to the home improvement
store and quite a few hours of her time to finally juryrig a
complicated series of adaptors and connectors and gas lines to make
it work. But work it does and she steps away proudly. She never
lost a single ounce of optimism over it, never even thought of
admitting defeat. It's just how she is - capable,
smart,
stubborn, unafraid to get dirty and innovative when she needs to be.
She can change your oil, fix a computer, install a security light,
repair a leaking water pipe, write and perform music, cook up a storm
and babysit her grandkids all without raising a sweat.
In
age, we are eight years apart, Charli and I. It's hardly enough to
shake a stick at after sixty or so. She's from Texas, I'm from New
England and yet we had such similar raising, that we clicked
immediately despite some profound differences. She's a life long
conservative, firmly but not blindly pro life and I'm considered a a
liberal, which in Louisiana means malcontented, leftist agitator. We
are both thoroughly and irrevocably shamed and disgusted by current
politics. We share a deep love of music and animals, a dedication to
living one day at a time as best we can
and
a spiritual connection to something but not necessarily a capital G
god. Neither of us has been inside a church in years and the
evangelicals leave a bad taste in both our mouths. We both struggle
with control issues and have no tolerance whatsoever for stupidity,
organized religion, hypocrisy, or alcohol. There's a bit of the
rescuer in us both, a fragile need to be needed and useful. I envy
her elegant self sufficiency. She envies my acrylic fingernails.
How
can you not love someone who remembers avocado green appliances?
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