{"id":62,"date":"2014-08-07T06:16:07","date_gmt":"2014-08-07T06:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/?p=62"},"modified":"2014-08-11T01:25:54","modified_gmt":"2014-08-11T01:25:54","slug":"would-you-jump-out-of-an-airplane-for-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2014\/08\/would-you-jump-out-of-an-airplane-for-love.html","title":{"rendered":"Would You Jump Out of an Airplane for Love?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

I make my way into my friend\u2019s house. I flop onto her sofa as I often do.<\/p>\n

Her sweet old dog makes her way to me. Forcing her big body off the floor to greet me no matter that age pulls her down. I stop to indulge her because truth be told, I love her as she loves me.<\/p>\n

My friend and I always call each other Lucy and Ethel. Naturally, we always fight over who gets to be Lucy. Who wouldn\u2019t??<\/p>\n

I guess it\u2019s only fair that I call her, \u201cLucy,\u201d in my column.<\/p>\n

My life is a little more \u2018Ethel\u201d these days, anyway. And when you\u2019re really the best of friends, then you always see the \u2018star\u2019 in those you love.<\/p>\n

\u201cLucy\u201d and I have our normal ritual. Once I flop onto her couch, she continues to swipe away at her computer long enough to finish up whatever I have interrupted.<\/p>\n

I like to stop by unannounced. Like a homing pigeon who needs to know she\u2019s back on route.<\/p>\n

Then she finds her way to the other couch in her family room and flops onto it beside me.<\/p>\n

We like to solve the worlds problems me and Lucy. We have logged some hours over the years deciding how to do things correctly. Our latest quest, helping me decipher where I went wrong.<\/p>\n

Lucy is a great friend. Not one to ever instill doubt. She\u2019s loyal, no, she\u2019s loyal to a fault….She\u2019s never going to see anything, but the best in me. I\u2019m going to make every wrong turn in life and she\u2019s going to be sitting shotgun next to me, saying, \u201cYou aren\u2019t going the wrong way………….The sign was wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

I, of course, love that. Who wouldn\u2019t? Needless to say, why naturally, I let her be \u201cLucy\u201d for this column.<\/p>\n

Lucy\u2019s trademark loyalty is about to show itself in spades.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s over. I think I\u2019ve made the worst mistake of my life. I think there\u2019s no returning. I think that my marriage predicament has left me in shambles.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook,\u201d says Lucy. \u201cIf they took you up into an airplane and told you that you had a 50% chance of not surviving would you jump?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell,\u201d I say. \u201cLucy, you know I don\u2019t like heights and more importantly you know I don\u2019t like to fly,\u201d (my husband always said I was more fun in the airport than I was the whole trip – nothing wrong with a cocktail pre-vacation). Lucy is of course, referencing the fact that at least 50% of marriages end in divorce.<\/p>\n

\u201cSO,\u201d I say. \u201cNo………I wouldn\u2019t jump.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cExactly,\u201d say Lucy.<\/p>\n

She says nothing more.<\/p>\n

All the angst leaves me.<\/p>\n

Lucy has restored her wingmen. Ethel and me, \u00a0we are feeling quite good.<\/p>\n

Like Laverne and Shirley, like Thelma and Louise, like Lorelai and Rory, like Mary and Rhoda, like Cagney and Lacey, like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, Lucy makes me feel brave, despite the fact that I am surrounded in suburbia by the 50% who survived the sky diving incident.<\/p>\n

Lucy doesn\u2019t ask me, \u201cWhere will we find room to fit you in to our couple filled airplane?\u201d<\/p>\n

She turns towards me, both of us quiet in the space where friendship needs no words and smiles.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s my wingman. Even though originally, \u201cLucy\u201d didn\u2019t know what that word meant.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would you ever jump?\u201d says Lucy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know, right?\u201d I say.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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That is the core from which I begin most stories. I find myself drawn to dig for the moments in the story that are the passion that drive the message. It may be the love of what originally started a business or an authentically motivated personal profile, or simply the love of a subject being investigated which compels me to write. My forever favorite form of writing is the human interest essay or what I call, \u201cAn Interview With Life.\u201d The average day that is explored and somehow once again instills in us a joie de vivre\u2026..a joy of life. 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