That thing about Jessica

With a little less than three weeks to go before I marry my best friend I’d like to take an opportunity to write something of this woman who has had such a positive and long-lasting impact on my life. Our connection has always been a source of curiosity to others who may view our personalities as oddly matched, but who may not be able to see that this is exactly why the union works so well. Jessica to me is like a song that you’ve learned but you don’t know when and how you learned it. It plays one day and you find yourself humming along, it’s familiar and beautiful but never uninteresting, always bringing with it a new sensation which you would have otherwise not experienced, some of the lyrics may escape your understanding but you replace them with your own words and it affords you the opportunity to make the song all your own. And that is what she has become, a song I’ve made my own.
 
Our journey has been an eventful one, the path we have walked together has had more than its share of pitfalls, booby traps, land mines, and the like. All the perils of the errant heart of a young man trying to take hold of manhood, and the ever-varying disposition of a young girl’s transition to womanhood have come to bear on our connection. The ties that have bonded us have been stretched to their utter limits, strained but never broken, unwoven but never detached. Alas, I’ve strayed away from my trail and have taken you into the cob-webbed cave of the modus operandi…allow me now, dear reader, to guide you to the light-soaked outlet of the end result.
 
Jessica has become through the years something of a rarity. Her intense love of laughter and enjoyment has been tempered with a keen sense of social responsibility and inquisitiveness of the world around her, and it gives her a balance in personality that is as peculiar as it is appealing. This balance was missing in her earlier years but has since brought a new dimension to what was always a noble character. Not to reduce the importance her life-loving, effervescent, bubbly charm which is most on display when she interacts with children (the very best judges of character on the face of the earth) which of course is her gift and calling.
 
Anyone who knows me well knows that my favorite author is Charles Dickens, the wonder and majesty of his writings have, in my mind, yet to be matched in any literature I’ve ever read – and believe me; I’ve digested my share of literature. One of, if not my favorite of  his novels, was his admittedly self-biographical account of one “David Copperfield”. This book may not have started my love affair with writing, but it was certainly akin to a first kiss, that time when you realize - hey, this is actually going somewhere. What does this have to do with my future bride? In the book David falls in love with two women, the first was Dora. Dora grew up in the lap of luxury, she spent her days at the apex of aristocracy, and as acutely oblivious to the world around her as she was beautiful. Dora did not fuss with the house account book, the attendants, the groceries or anything else that housewives occupied themselves with in those days. She would complain of headaches whenever David mentioned something in the news or try to teach her something regarding the running of a home. She needed to be taken care of, she was loving and compassionate enough, and most of all extremely pretty, but she lacked that curiosity that makes women of girls. Yet, there was a charm to her that touched David to his very core, she had a quality that makes hearts melt, so much son that her other flaws were thrust aside, and made him love her with a fantastic kind of devotion, though he knew all along that something was missing. And that missing something he found in his childhood friend Agnes after Dora died young from an illness. Agnes was the antithesis of the lovely Dora, though she did not possess the same wax-doll beauty, she had that kind of appeal that drew respect and admiration from deeper places than the eyes. Agnes was the picture of responsibility, she was everything Dora wasn’t and everything David could ever need. My point in telling you all this is that Jessica, my gorgeous wife-to-be embodies both Agnes and Dora in every respect. She has the beauty and charm of Dora, and the nurturing, calm approach to life’s challenges as Agnes. And so unlike so many others not as blessed as I am, I get to spend the rest of my life with the heroine of my dreams.