In Celebration of My Married Sisters
There are five Somerville girls in my family: myself, my little sisters (17 and 21, both still in college), and my married sisters (24 and 21, married to two of my brothers).
I adore my college girl sisters, but just now I want to write in praise of my married sisters. Any girl who has been especially close to her brothers knows how hard it can be to give them up to other, and closer, best friends. But not every girl, I suppose, is as thrice-blessed as myself in return for the sacrifice. My married sisters, Jessica and Casey, fill me with joy and thankfulness.
You might say, "What need have you of two more sisters? You've already got two!" Ah, yes, but after a few years with my two new sisters, I wouldn't give them up any more than I would the two I have had for more than a decade. Who would willingly give up Jessica's gentle wisdom and playful warmth? Who would agree to spend less time with Casey, who is ten girls in one and can skip lightly from playmate to counselor to fairy princess?
We have, in the words of a book I am reading right now, such larks! I will give you an instance. Last Sunday, when we were all at the parental house, the boys and Dad were watching football, and the three of us somehow wound up on the same couch across the room, reading books. (Nota bene: my father and brothers are NOT the kind of guys who ignore their wives/sisters/daughters for sports. We gladly gave them up to their game, and they were mindful to serve or entertain us in an instant, should we have asked. So it was all comfortable and not wretched at all.)
By and by (I do not remember how it started), one of us suggested that we get our own movie to watch upstairs. The others agreed, but since all our movies are in storage preparatory to moving, we decided to run over to Nate's house (my sole remaining unmarried brother) and borrow from his several-hundred-movie collection. Then the kissing wars started. You see, neither married couple has any idea of what it means to separate, for however brief a span, without kissing. I don't know where they got this notion, unless it was from my parents, who are just the same way after many years of marriage.
Well, anyway, Mike kissed Jessica and then Casey kissed David more romantically, so then Mike and Jess started in again, and for a moment or two there was a playful competition and quite an orgy of embracing. It is the most entertaining thing in the world, dear reader, to have married siblings in a household where frequent kissing is not only expected but absolutely welcomed and encouraged by long tradition and parental example.
Then we three went trippingly down the driveway, all young and happy in the sunlight, and I thought (for the millionth time) that God has blessed me beyond reason or imagination. In the car I began to share with my sisters about something that has been troubling me a good deal, and immediately they were my wise and sympathetic counselors, full of biblical thoughts and kindness. The memory of it has the power, even now, to move me almost to tears.
When we arrived, the playfulness began again. "Mike says that you always wanted to watch the Ten Commandments when you were kids, Christy."
"Yeah, all right, I was a sucker for the historical epics. What can I say?"
"Where are all the chick flicks?"
"Nate has chick flicks? All I see is war movies."
"I think it's because I already borrowed all the chick flicks."
"Jessica!"
"What about this?"
"You've got to be kidding. What we want here is fluff, not drama."
"These are all too serious."
"Well, what about this one?"
"Strictly Ballroom. Never heard of it."
"It's a cult classic, like The Princess Bride."
"I never really liked The Princess Bride."
"Whoa! You don't?"
After a protracted discussion, and since there was absolutely nothing else, Jess and Casey agreed (with a certain amount of skepticism), to give the Australian cult classic about ballroom dancing a try. I had a good deal of confidence in the movie's power to please, mostly because I've never met a girl who didn't like it. However, my sisters are pretty discriminating and have well-defined tastes in movies, so it wasn't without doubts that I staked my reputation for movie recommendations (which isn't much of one, so I didn't have all that much to lose) on Strictly Ballroom.
Well, when we got home of course the boys' first question was "What are you going to watch?" We told them. David immediately bit his lip and looked anxiously at his wife. "You don't think she'll like it?" I queried. He looked at her. "Well.... no, I don't. Um...just remember that it's an indy, Case." (Later, he admitted that he thought she would hate it.)
So we toted the movie upstairs to my big screen and watched it. Just as things were starting to get romantic, Mike joined us (his football game being over). My brothers are both very well acquainted with this movie, and Mike exclaimed at one point "Oh, this is my favorite part coming up."
"You know this movie? Why didn't you tell me about it!" This from Jessica, who by now was quite engrossed. Casey too. We all laughed a good bit at the mockumentary style of the beginning, but this movie has a way of drawing you in, step by step, until all at once you find that you've fallen in love with it.
Well, a few minutes later the battery died on the laptop we were using, so we switched to the downstairs TV. David had been just coming up, and he immediately joined us. (David likes the movie too, but of course he would have joined us in any case, because that's where Casey was. Married people are like that.) The two couples snuggled up on two couches, much to my private amusement, and watched the end of this surprisingly powerful story about intergenerational redemption, romance, and above all dancing.
"Did you like it?" David asked Casey.
"I loved it!"
Jess liked it too, and my brothers were pleased to discover that their wives enjoyed a movie that they had enjoyed for years. I must admit, I was pleased with myself for having made the gamble to promote it---but I was more pleased that they enjoyed it, regardless of whose idea it was.
So Jack had Jill, nought went ill, and everybody wound up embracing on the dance floor. Or, as Shakespeare did not put it, "hugs and kisses all round." Now, dear reader, who could fail to appreciate such sisters? In the space of just a few hours, they were playful, wise, romantic, humble enough and game enough to take a plunge on an odd-looking movie, and willing to share all they have to give in warm and loving friendship with me, while simultaneously loving my brothers like everything.
Jess and Casey, I think you are the dearest, sweetest, prettiest, funniest, most glorious married sisters a girl could have. Thank you for being so good to me!
I adore my college girl sisters, but just now I want to write in praise of my married sisters. Any girl who has been especially close to her brothers knows how hard it can be to give them up to other, and closer, best friends. But not every girl, I suppose, is as thrice-blessed as myself in return for the sacrifice. My married sisters, Jessica and Casey, fill me with joy and thankfulness.
You might say, "What need have you of two more sisters? You've already got two!" Ah, yes, but after a few years with my two new sisters, I wouldn't give them up any more than I would the two I have had for more than a decade. Who would willingly give up Jessica's gentle wisdom and playful warmth? Who would agree to spend less time with Casey, who is ten girls in one and can skip lightly from playmate to counselor to fairy princess?
We have, in the words of a book I am reading right now, such larks! I will give you an instance. Last Sunday, when we were all at the parental house, the boys and Dad were watching football, and the three of us somehow wound up on the same couch across the room, reading books. (Nota bene: my father and brothers are NOT the kind of guys who ignore their wives/sisters/daughters for sports. We gladly gave them up to their game, and they were mindful to serve or entertain us in an instant, should we have asked. So it was all comfortable and not wretched at all.)
By and by (I do not remember how it started), one of us suggested that we get our own movie to watch upstairs. The others agreed, but since all our movies are in storage preparatory to moving, we decided to run over to Nate's house (my sole remaining unmarried brother) and borrow from his several-hundred-movie collection. Then the kissing wars started. You see, neither married couple has any idea of what it means to separate, for however brief a span, without kissing. I don't know where they got this notion, unless it was from my parents, who are just the same way after many years of marriage.
Well, anyway, Mike kissed Jessica and then Casey kissed David more romantically, so then Mike and Jess started in again, and for a moment or two there was a playful competition and quite an orgy of embracing. It is the most entertaining thing in the world, dear reader, to have married siblings in a household where frequent kissing is not only expected but absolutely welcomed and encouraged by long tradition and parental example.
Then we three went trippingly down the driveway, all young and happy in the sunlight, and I thought (for the millionth time) that God has blessed me beyond reason or imagination. In the car I began to share with my sisters about something that has been troubling me a good deal, and immediately they were my wise and sympathetic counselors, full of biblical thoughts and kindness. The memory of it has the power, even now, to move me almost to tears.
When we arrived, the playfulness began again. "Mike says that you always wanted to watch the Ten Commandments when you were kids, Christy."
"Yeah, all right, I was a sucker for the historical epics. What can I say?"
"Where are all the chick flicks?"
"Nate has chick flicks? All I see is war movies."
"I think it's because I already borrowed all the chick flicks."
"Jessica!"
"What about this?"
"You've got to be kidding. What we want here is fluff, not drama."
"These are all too serious."
"Well, what about this one?"
"Strictly Ballroom. Never heard of it."
"It's a cult classic, like The Princess Bride."
"I never really liked The Princess Bride."
"Whoa! You don't?"
After a protracted discussion, and since there was absolutely nothing else, Jess and Casey agreed (with a certain amount of skepticism), to give the Australian cult classic about ballroom dancing a try. I had a good deal of confidence in the movie's power to please, mostly because I've never met a girl who didn't like it. However, my sisters are pretty discriminating and have well-defined tastes in movies, so it wasn't without doubts that I staked my reputation for movie recommendations (which isn't much of one, so I didn't have all that much to lose) on Strictly Ballroom.
Well, when we got home of course the boys' first question was "What are you going to watch?" We told them. David immediately bit his lip and looked anxiously at his wife. "You don't think she'll like it?" I queried. He looked at her. "Well.... no, I don't. Um...just remember that it's an indy, Case." (Later, he admitted that he thought she would hate it.)
So we toted the movie upstairs to my big screen and watched it. Just as things were starting to get romantic, Mike joined us (his football game being over). My brothers are both very well acquainted with this movie, and Mike exclaimed at one point "Oh, this is my favorite part coming up."
"You know this movie? Why didn't you tell me about it!" This from Jessica, who by now was quite engrossed. Casey too. We all laughed a good bit at the mockumentary style of the beginning, but this movie has a way of drawing you in, step by step, until all at once you find that you've fallen in love with it.
Well, a few minutes later the battery died on the laptop we were using, so we switched to the downstairs TV. David had been just coming up, and he immediately joined us. (David likes the movie too, but of course he would have joined us in any case, because that's where Casey was. Married people are like that.) The two couples snuggled up on two couches, much to my private amusement, and watched the end of this surprisingly powerful story about intergenerational redemption, romance, and above all dancing.
"Did you like it?" David asked Casey.
"I loved it!"
Jess liked it too, and my brothers were pleased to discover that their wives enjoyed a movie that they had enjoyed for years. I must admit, I was pleased with myself for having made the gamble to promote it---but I was more pleased that they enjoyed it, regardless of whose idea it was.
So Jack had Jill, nought went ill, and everybody wound up embracing on the dance floor. Or, as Shakespeare did not put it, "hugs and kisses all round." Now, dear reader, who could fail to appreciate such sisters? In the space of just a few hours, they were playful, wise, romantic, humble enough and game enough to take a plunge on an odd-looking movie, and willing to share all they have to give in warm and loving friendship with me, while simultaneously loving my brothers like everything.
Jess and Casey, I think you are the dearest, sweetest, prettiest, funniest, most glorious married sisters a girl could have. Thank you for being so good to me!
posted by Praelucor at 9:01 AM
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