So many things factor into forming who we are and how we view the world around us. As a child I was never taught to judge people by their economic status or by the color of their skin. Racial tensions ran high during my younger years, but those tensions just didn't seem to personally touch my life. Sure, it was something I saw on TV and read about in books and magazines, but I didn't have to live it firsthand. I simply grew up not understanding why some people hated others for what seemed to me like no valid reason and to this day, I still have problems understanding racism and bigotry. Maybe I was fortunate to grow up in a place where those horrible things didn't happen very often or if they did, I never had to witness them. Maybe I was fortunate to be able to turn off listening whenever my grandfather loudly ranted and raved about Catholics and Jews instead of taking it to heart. I always wondered what bug had crawled up his butt when he decided the Beatles were the cause of all the world's problems and no one from New Jersey should be able to drive a car. Okay, maybe he got that one right! [LOL] Archie Bunker had nothing on my grandfather. Put toe to toe, I think my grandfather could have taken Archie down. And maybe most of all, I was fortunate to develop insulation to some things I saw as being immoral, unjust and just plain crazy. I wanted to be free to develop my own brand of crazy and to think for myself.
As a young teenager, I saw an interracial relationship develop within the group of people I hung around. People couldn't be in Billie (Buz as we called him then) and Debbie's presence without noticing that they truly loved each other. Because of them, I discovered love really is blind. The heart doesn't see the color of a person's skin no more than the heart sees the color or length of a person's hair, their height or their weight and the size of their bank account. I secretly rooted for their relationship to not only withstand the normal relationship woes, but to continue to grow and develop into lasting relationship. What I didn't see or understand were the problems they faced behind the scenes. Sure, their friends were able to accept their relationship, but that wasn't the case with all the people in their lives. I don't know the details of how or why they split up, but I witnessed a certain veil of sadness as a result of it. They both moved on, got married and lived a life without each other.
Now, flash forward many years later to a time after Debbie's husband died from complications due to diabetes and Billie's marriage ended around the same time. Several years ago, they both exchanged wedding vows again, but this time it was with each other and they started living a life that was all, but a faded memory from years ago. It just goes to show you that when two people belong together, fate will make it happen. There's a greeting card that has always stuck with me. Each time true love prevails, I think of that card. It simply says: Somehow...Someway...Somewhere...Someday...