There is a song my parents used to sing together. The first verse is made up of questions, and the second offers the answers.
Tell me why the ivy twines?
Tell me why the stars do shine?
Tell me why the sky's so blue?
And I will tell you why I love
you.
Because God made the ivy twine,
because God made the stars to shine,
because God made the sky so blue,
that is the reason why I love you.
It could be argued that there are cracks in the logic. What do lights in the night sky have to do with compatibility?
For me the song is a tender memory, a window into what their relationship
would be once all the mania and anger had been stripped away. They only sang it on talent night at camp, or on their anniversary. But I can still picture how she looked up at him, and how he crooned the bass line underneath her melody.
He loved her because his trust in God trumped the episodes in the mental hospital, or the night rages as she rearranged furniture. Again. She loved him even though he moved to another state to get away from her, and would end
phone calls before she was finished yelling.
Two blemished human beings, who could not untangle themselves from hurts around childhood, or the war, or living just above the poverty line.
In the end it was all the answer they needed.
