Why I Can’t Do The Facebook “7-Day Love My Spouse” Challenge
It would be so romantic.
A wonderful tribute to my husband.
I get that.
And still,
I can’t do it.
I’m talking about the latest viral thing floating around Facebook.
Have you seen this?
The “7-Day Love Your Spouse” Challenge.
The goal is to post photos of your beloved spouse for seven days including some mushy note expounding on their amazing qualities.
And you’re supposed to tag two other friends, challenging them to do the same.
I’ve been tagged twice.
I should, could, be running my fingers across my laptop as fast as my love for Husband can spill onto my screen.
And onto yours.
Which is the thing.
Why I can’t.
Stand down.
All is fine in marriage-land.
And I get the spirit of the challenge.
To promote love and marriage.
Who could be against that?
I applaud my friends who have shared their love of their spouse with the world.
It’s just that even four years into marriage, I identify more with the single person who knows the trek through social media can be so painful.
This Spouse Challenge is just the cherry on top.
Another potential splash in the face of “Look what I have that you don’t.”
So, in the spirit of, “If I can find a great guy, I gotta believe anyone can.”
Of, “I actually pre-shopped for great husband qualities in some of my friends’ marriages I admired, okay was envious of, for years, before I got married.”
I offer you, “Love Someone Else’s Spouse” Challenge.
Not in a covet, steal them, sort of way.
Rather, as beacons of hope that just maybe a great guy could be out there, if I knew what I was looking for.
I long loved my friend, Gina’s husband, Malcolm. Great giver of fantastic advice, thinker, appreciator of strong women.
Malcolm, brilliant doctor. Even better husband and father.
I long loved my friend, Heidi’s husband, Steve.
Throw my friend, Lisa’s husband, Tom, in there, too.
Each quiet pillars of strength without a lot of words, yet a dedication to family that would humble Superman.
Tom, with my friend, Lisa and her parents, Lee and Larry. Not an accident that I couldn’t find a photo of Tom by himself. Because that’s Tom.
Same thing with Steve, husband of my friend, Heidi. Always doing for others.
Leon and Dan long showed me how a man can show up as a fantastic friend.
Leon was once my TV husband, and forever my big brother and wise counsel.
Dan has been married to Claudia for more than 30 years and never afraid to explain things to me with no filter.
Getting the idea, Dear Reader?
Those lovey-dovey people on Facebook aren’t there to torture you.
They’re your shopping mall for fine qualities in the spouse on his or her way.
By the way, I did run this by Husband.
“Does it bother you that I’m not going to do the ‘7-day Love Your Spouse Challenge’ on Facebook?” I asked. “I’m not telling the world everything I love about you.”
“You lost me at Facebook,” said this non-social media man.
So, there you do have one thing I do love about him.
Feel free to put it on your shopping list.
The rest?
I’m going to tell him to his face right now.
And if I get this wifey-thing right, I’ll be doing it for more than seven days.
(((Please catch my column each week in The Atlanta Journal Constitution, The Dayton Daily News and other Cox Newspapers across the country.)
And if you like my column about perfectly imperfect family life, you might like my book–
