Celebrate

Every year my parents take a trip to Cancun for their anniversary. That time of year is upon us, and in fact, they depart on Thursday. It being their 28th year of marriage together, they deserve to go. I love that they go. I am so fortunate that they still love each other because many marriages don’t quite make it these days.

I have seen a number of couples hitch themselves recently, most of whom are young: VERY YOUNG. Few have finished college, let alone begun adulthood. Several of these marriages have ended and abruptly.

To prepare my brothers and I for the ten days that they’ll be away and not here to be our parents, we took a trip to Walmart for foods. While my brothers got things for meals, I am so rarely home for dinners and just picked small, portable things. When in the checkout line, my parents agreed to buy me both gum and a chapstick. I love them for that!

The lady that checked us out was wearing a lanyard that read LEGALIZE over and over with a different color for each letter. Essentially making a rainbow. My father inquired as to what she wanted to legalize, thinking it may be for pot. The lady picked her lanyard with her fingers and unapologetically began. “Gay marriage,” she said.

My father has a gay son but I’ve never actually known how he felt about the equality movement. I never believed that he was against it, but not sure if he felt in any particular direction. I had always assumed he was Switzerland.

“Oh, nice,” my father replied.

“Gay marriage and gay rights. I don’t expect it to happen tomorrow, but some day” the lady added.

“Well look how far we’ve come so far” as if he was part of the movement. Like he genuinely believed in the cause. “A lot of progress has been made in five years.”

I was honestly expecting my dad to add, “My son is gay.” As if having a gay son decides for him which side of the fence he sits on. Similar to saying, “I’m not racist, my uncle is black.” Despite having a black uncle, one could easily be discriminatory against black people. Simply liking one person in a sample does not negate the rest of someone’s behavior toward that sample as a whole.

"Well, when the day comes, I'll vote for it."

He never added anything about me. I didn’t, either. It was actually really nice to see my father act accordingly, as if I wasn’t there. I do believe that he wants to see me have my 28th anniversary one day in Cancun. This is just one more of the little things that my family does to celebrate my different interest in love, including my grandmother basically trying to set me up on dates with handsome, 40-year-old rich men.

I love my family.