Short Stories On Odyssey: He's The Man
Johnathan Masterson was the perfect man, husband, and father. And this made you the luckiest woman, wife, and mother in the eyes of women everywhere.
Johnathan Masterson was the perfect man, husband, and father.
He was kind and respectful in a way that could only be found in the scripts of romance movies. He made sure he looked presentable during dates — that he washed his good jeans and wore that three-quarter button-up shirt from the Banana Republic he knew you loved so much. He made it a point to actively listen to you as you talked about your day, no matter how mundane it was, and he expressed his love for you every day, whether it was by physically telling you as he left for work or by patiently agreeing to go to a yoga class that you had a coupon for.
At home, he helped with the dishes, the vacuuming, and the grocery shopping (which was probably more trouble than it was worth trying to keep him away from filling the cart with discounted boxes of Entennman's Pop'Ems and Lemon Loaf Cake). He even took turns cooking. Last night he whipped up some spaghetti and meatballs. It wasn't half bad, but it was nothing compared to the honey garlic salmon he made last week. That turned out amazing. You were particularly fond of the sauteed trumpet mushrooms he prepared as a side. You were definitely going to make that again one day.
And when Jamie was born, he woke up in the early morning to put her back to sleep. He changed her diaper if it needed to be changed. He took her to the park on the weekends. He showed up to school functions and cheered during her distasteful recorder performance and her class' rendition of "The Wizard of Oz" where she played "Tree Number Three."
Johnathan Masterson was the perfect man, husband, and father. And this made you the luckiest woman, wife, and mother in the eyes of women everywhere.
But you did all these things too: You were kind and respectful. You actively listened to him as he rambled on about how Marc Horowitz from HR was being a complete pain in the ass. You sacrificed watching the latest episode of "Jane the Virgin" so that he could watch the Lakers game. (You even watched it with him.) You helped with the dishes, the vacuuming, and the grocery shopping. You woke up in the early working to put Jamie back to sleep. You changed her diaper, took her to the park, and made sure you were there for every school function. But that didn't make you the perfect woman, wife, and mother. It just made you a woman, wife, and mother.
Why is that?
