It could have gone better -- it could have been a lot worse
Lover Boy, his father and sister and I were having one last cook-out this weekend. It's always a good time.
When the food was done we took everything inside and had a good meal, talked football and had a few laughs. When the dishes were being cleared my FIL made mention of a pair of books on our coffee table. One was written by Tolstoy the other is "Anarchy and Apocalypse: Essays on Faith, Violence, and Theodicy."
Lover Boy said that he feels he can no longer, in good conscience in general and as a matter of faith in particular, support the state -- any state. This came as quite the shock to my FIL. When Lover Boy and I were first dating we were polar opposites. He was the conservative veteran, I was the hippie chick Progressive. We have since met in the middle, IYKWIMAITYD. But for his father, an establishment Republican, this was quite a shock.
For every objection my FIL brought up Lover Boy politely rebutted. It was obvious my FIL was getting frustrated and that's when it happened.
My FIL said, "Dammit {son}, I would have expected this from her {meaning me}, not you."
Lover Boy flipped. He exploded, demanding to know what that meant.
My FIL insisted that he didn't mean anything by it. Personally, I kind of know what he meant but LB was livid. It's uncharacteristic for him. In the years we have been together he's never so much as raised his voice to me. In fact, the bigger the controversy between us the more measured his voice becomes. But this was different.
"That's my wife." I tried to calm him but his button couldn't be un-pushed. My FIL tried to apologize but it wasn't much use. He finally said it was time to go.
My SIL was in tears (she's just a kid and we spend most weekdays together and many weekends as well). I assured her everything was going to be fine, they just needed time to cool off.
As I saw them to their car my FIL came to me to apologize. I just put my hands around his neck and kissed him on the cheek. He apologized again and told me I was the best blessing to the family he could ever ask for.
When I went back inside LB was slumped on the couch. I straddled his lap and wrapped myself around him and we held each other until I felt the tension drain from him and then I held him some more.
LB called his father this morning. Everything is going to be fine. They apologized to each other and everything seems back to normal.
Still, it was pretty intense last night.
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