Are We There Yet?

I’m not living if I’m not looking ahead to some thing or to some event. That’s just me. I know I need to stop and smell the roses more often, and I need to appreciate the here and now; but I totally get off on that giddy feeling of planning something exciting and the days leading up to it.

Holidays are great. Musical acts coming into town are awesome. Kids’ sporting events are a lot of fun. I get to add those to my calendar and be reminded the purpose of getting through the work week is so that I can enjoy those moments of celebration, exaltation, and, as was the case last night, inebriation.

Still nothing quite compares to the trip on which Lee and I embark this afternoon. It’s an annual get-together with hundreds of our closest friends - which really are like family now - and we all pile aboard this ship and listen to music and drink and celebrate life and drink and share in the power of the musical spirit …. and drink. This get-together is a little thing we like to call The Rock Boat, and this annual floating music festival gets me amped up like nothing else.

Speaking of amped, this is the eleventh year of the cruise and the theme for the event is ‘Going to 11’. Like the rockers from ‘This is Spinal Tap’, this cruise goes that extra push over the cliff and all the way to eleven! As far as the cruising is concerned, the folks at Sixthman, the affinity travel company that puts on the event, have added a wrinkle to the party and have not yet announced to where we’ll be sailing. It really doesn’t matter. The ship could stay in the Port of Tampa all four days and it will still be the best vacation ever.

There’s something absolutely exhilarating about allowing yourself to be consumed by live music and sharing that experience with the people you love. In a nutshell, that is why I get so excited with anticipation for the Boat. In fact, I am telling myself to type faster so I can wrap up this posting and get going to the port.

Excitement is a good thing. I do concede it needs to be balanced (didn’t we just talk about that?) with allowing yourself to absorb the experience you’ve been looking forward to. It’s not like I am going to spend four days on the ship thinking about the next event I’ll be attending. Still, the rush of ‘are we there yet?’ makes it that much better.

As we’re still in the season of the New Year, I hope that you have a wonderful and exciting 2011 planned for yourself. Part of what makes us feel alive is wondering what life has in store for us next.

Panna

Colloquialisms are cool. They’re relaxed, informal forms of language that at times form a level of intimacy in dialogue. They can also be terms of endearment. In Spanish - specifically the Spanish spoken in Venezuela - the word ‘panna’ is a colloquialism. It means friend, but more so in the context of ‘buddy’, and it’s derived from the English word partner.

I was thinking of the word partner this weekend following a wedding my wife and I attended in Puerto Rico. During the ceremony, the minister made the statement, “Don't try to find the perfect partner for your life. Rather, try to be the perfect partner to someone else.” It’s one of those quotes that made me look at Lee, she at me and forced us both to hold back a tear. I also think it perfectly defines what one should strive for in a marriage. After all, a marriage is, at its core, a partnership.

This quote stuck with me the following day as Lee and I ventured up and down the streets of Old San Juan. If you’ve never been, the best way of describing Old San Juan is New Orleans meets San Francisco meets St. Augustine. The Spanish influenced architecture is prominent and made more stunning by the vibrant, deco colors of the buildings that are set on oftentimes steep hills. The balconies of the buildings are adorned with wrought iron and there’s no escaping the presence of the fort and protective wall that once surrounded the entire city. It’s an enchanting destination with a world of history, and I can’t wait for my next opportunity to return to Puerto Rico. Still, the best part of the trip was being able to share that experience with my wife and my partner. Or should I say panna.

I am so lucky and blessed to have the relationship I do with her, one where the formality of a partnership is purposefully ignored in favor of the comfort and intimacy of a true friendship. At its best, we finish each other’s thoughts and sentences. It’s no longer surprising to either of us when we do, but I will admit it’s still a little freaky.

At its worst, the fights we seldom have are quickly resolved because being mad at each other usually means being apart from each other, and being apart from each other almost always means being alone inside. This is not good for either of us. The relationship Lee and I share is one where we can only achieve together those things we cannot achieve individually. Our marriage is a working example of Aristotle’s concept of holism whereby the whole is more than the sum of its parts. That being said, Lee will tell you that at its worst the ‘hole’ in the equation is 100% me.

As we come off of Thanksgiving and gear up for the holiday season, I am so very thankful for my wife and everything she’s given me in the nearly six years I’ve known her. It’s hard to remember my life before I met Lee. It’s certainly impossible to imagine a life without her. As I think about all the things I want for Christmas, I know I already have the greatest gift of all. I have a panna I get to discover anew and enjoy every day of the year. It’s truly wonderful. Or should I say, colloquially, awesome.