I'm fortunate to live within a metro that simply doesn't have a snarled traffic expectation attached to it. Hence, unless its holiday season (Xmas), I'm not at all constrained to come and go from home undeterred as I please. As a result, Jackson, Mississippi and its surrounding suburbs feel more like a big-small town than a thriving urban metropolis. As such, vehicular transportation flows relatively freely, and much of this can be attributed to the fact that a large majority of the city's (Jackson) impoverished (black populace) simply do not own cars.
Throughout the majority of my free-flowing drive home one afternoon this past week, I carried on disturbed, having spotted a couple exiting a (known) therapist's office, heading towards their parked car. Obviously, this emotionally raucous (weighty) disturbance was centered around me knowing this husband / wife. And not only that, but that knowing being rooted within the assumption that their marriage was no doubt Jackson, Mississippi upper-class white people picture P-E-R-F-E-C-T.
This couple has been married about as long as Angie and me. We've known them for decades, having worshipped with them (same church) years prior. But not only that, these two and their beautiful offspring have been featured repeatedly within print publications throughout the years. Publications touting both their deep-seated faith and unconventional (yet obviously devout) approach to rearing their children. To top it off, this couple is made up of two photogenically beautiful human beings, and not only from the standpoint of focusing on their health, but too, as it pertains to simply stellar DNA. Intelligent, beautiful, charismatic = picture P-E-R-F-E-C-T.
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When Angie and I were first married, we worshipped with this couple and numerous others at First Baptist Church Jackson. Angie at the time was working too for a massive international corporation that just happened to have a presence here in the Jackson Metro. Hence, we found ourselves rubbing shoulders with the future "movers & shakers" of Jackson each time we stepped foot into that church. Whether it was doctors, lawyers, accountants, heirs apparent to hugely successful enterprises, each represented crystallized perfection via how they dressed, where they lived and so forth.
Yet, there of course, isn't any relational (& certainly not marital) perfection, is there?
Marriages are tenuous. Easily bruised. Rarely solvent. Under constant pressure.
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What was so disturbing therein regarding my drive home was how unconvinced the wife looked compared to her beaming husband as they strode across the asphalt to their vehicle. This woman has a powerfully emotive face, therefore I could read her expressions instantly during those few drive-by seconds.
Perhaps her husband had launched a poorly timed joke that had fallen flat just moments prior. I actually hope so. Instead, what I saw seemed more of a potential reflection of what had transpired during the hour prior.
Very, very disturbing indeed.
What's that saying about a woman scorned?
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