Laughter

I was asked recently, around the time Chris and I celebrated our anniversary, “what makes for a successful marriage?”

In our case, the answer is easy- laughter.  A lot of it.  You can’t take yourself or everything going on around you too seriously.

An example?  Our luck with cars recently.  Just before leaving for India, Chris noticed his car was making a noise.  Which never happens at a good time, but just after a big trip and close to holiday is a horrible time.  He had it looked at and the good news was that it was not the expensive thing he thought it was.  It was worse.  Like get a new car worse.

So off he went to look at new cars one Saturday.  So I took Aidan to karate.  On the way home, while waiting for the light to change, a pick up truck came around the corner and a washing machine hit my car.  Yeah, that happened.  It fell off the truck and hit the corner of my car.

Chris went to pick up his new car and it was too late to park it on the street because of resident parking hours and not having time to get a pass.  So he put it in the garage.  Except that he wasn’t able to judge the mirrors and hit the passenger side.  It fell and smashed.  Ug.

Sometimes all you can do is laugh.

Boston Wedding Photographer

Big Kids in the Children’s Museum

Every once in a while it’s nice to be a kid again.  Chris and I got to do that last week when we visited the Boston Children’s Museum for Adults Only Night.  it was the first time the Children’s Museum has done an event like this and it was quite successful!  There were so many people!  At one point the line to get into the climbing structure was longer than the line for the bar!  And how cool is that to have a bar outside the bubble exhibit!

We have been the the museum often enough with the kids and so many times have said how cool it would be to do what they were doing.  It was fun to have a night to do it!

My take on Chick-fil-a

First, I will start with I have never eaten at a Chick-fil-a.  Mostly because there are not many in this area, but also we try to do our best to avoid fast food as much as we can.  So this can be taken with a grain of salt.

I have come to realize as I have gotten older, the power of consumerism.  People can boycott something and thanks to social media, it can go viral and destroy a company.  Similarly, a good company can be on the receiving end of the same kind of viral messaging.  We are lucky in that way to have more “power” and “influence” than perhaps any other time in history.  We are able to find out more easily about a company who makes products in sweatshops with child labor or a company that sticks to local buying.

We have chosen to try to raise our kids as responsible citizens knowing not just about the products the consumer but their companies.  We try to buy local when we can.  We try to support organizations who do great things.  New Balance gives back to the community, we buy sneakers there (for example).  We purchase fruits and vegetables at a local Dorchester fruit market that is family run.

Opinions matter and the opinion of the person running the company sets the tone for the core values and culture of the company, implied or otherwise.  Denied others rights is not something our family believes in.  For that reason, we will not be going to Chick-fil-a.

I’m not one for blasting a company, rather standing with those who are standing for the rights of all, the Jim Hensen company who pulled their toys, for example.  Mayor Menino  worded his letter well.  While I would not stand in the way of a company bringing jobs to the city, I do not think it would do well.  Only time will tell.