Jealousy

When Elle married Skeets they had to run away to another town which was one of the few locations at that time where a minor did not need parental consent to get married. Since she was a minor Elle’s marriage annulment was not a difficult process. There were times in the years to come when Elle wished she’d stayed married to Skeets. He loved her, was a responsible man who would have been a good husband and father. Who among us doesn’t occasionally ponder how our lives might be in the present had our past decisions been different.

Based on my observation and experience with life I believe who we marry is the second most important decision of our lives. How we relate to our creator is definitely in a class by itself as number one but the marriage decision affects everything in our entire lives for the rest of our lives. The magnitude of this choice cannot be underestimated and should not be taken lightly. Then again many remain single due to fear of a bad or wrong decision. There is always risk in every decision we make, even to get out of bed in the morning.

After the annulment Elle focused on working and her education. She attended classes and studied when she wasn’t working her car hop job. What made her study accounting when she hated math and thought she wasn’t good at it? Whatever it was I think she passed the trait onto me. Often I’ve endeavored things I had no natural interest or aptitude for or was afraid to try in order to overcome fear, stretch and grow as a person.

When one of Elle’s regular customers, Sam asked her out repeatedly one day she finally consented. They had a fun first date at a football the attended game with other young people. Sam continued asking her out and it soon became a regular thing. Sam was crazy about her and Elle fell in love with him. Less than a year later they got married and Elle says Sam was the best lover she ever had in her life. Elle put her college courses on hold and took a full time job as a bookkeeper for a man who owned two furniture stores.

One day when Elle got to work at the main store where the offices were located, her boss was standing outside on the street curb looking at the smoldering building. Somehow the night before the building caught on fire and most of the furniture store contents were lost. When the fire was completely out Elle helped her boss look rummage for any business documents and records that were salvageable from the ruins. She then accepted the task of helping re-establish all the business books and record keeping systems. This was before computers or backup systems.

I remember hearing about how the great American inventor Thomas Edison got his children out of bed late one night to come see the fire that was burning down his plant where his experiments and manufacturing were done. When Edison lost records for his experiments the backup system was what he could locate in his cranial files. I sometimes think of Edison when I experience a setback or need to start something over because he didn’t lie down and die but failed forward.

“Although I am over 67 years old I’ll start over again tomorrow. I am pretty well burned out tonight, but tomorrow there will be a mobilization here and he debris will be cleared away, if it is cooled sufficiently, and I will go right to work to reconstruct the plant, said Mr. Edison as he watched the flames destroy building after building.” New York Times, Dec 10, 1914

Elle had to spend a good deal of time with the furniture store owner since together they were trying to get the business re-established. Sometimes they discussed business issues and plans while having lunch together- it was a very busy time. One day Sam started questioning Elle about the time she was spending during lunch with her boss. This shocked Elle who dismissed his concern as completely unnecessary. Sam however did see it as a light matter and a side of him began surfacing that would eventually prove fatal to the survival of their love- jealousy. Once the jealousy surfaced Sam’s obsession with it only grew worse.

“Jealousy, that dragon which slays love under the pretence of keeping it alive.” Havelock Ellis (British psychologist and author 1859-1939)

Thomas Edison 1878

Incandescent light bulbs are going to become extinct in a few years because our federal government has caved to the environmental lobbyists and soon these bulbs available since Edison’s time will be illegal to manufacture or sell. That means only ugly fluorescent light for our children and grandchildren..I hate fluorescent light!