Quite Possibly Worth It

While both our dogs were alive, my wife frequently took them for walks while pushing baby in her stroller. At my worst moments, I imagined that she was doing it specifically to make me look bad in front of the neighbors. The no-good, no-account husband – that kind of thing. During saner hours I suspected that my wife took these three beloved creatures in her life for trips around the block because it made her happy to be with them, and to serve them.

Tonight I took baby and our remaining dog for a walk. Pushing baby in her stroller and just managing to keep the single dog untangled as he marked every shrub and mailbox in a quarter-mile radius, I felt, first of all, simultaneously coordinated and overwhelmed. (For the record, I assume doing this with two dogs and a stroller was significantly more challenging.) But then something else started to happen. The dog began to behave, walking calmly at a reasonable pace, seemingly conscious of the fact that this could be a good thing. Baby, I realized, was singing and talking to herself, as happy as a bird in a tree. The three of us were in harmony, in kind of a deep way. I suddenly realized that moments like this must sometimes constitute my wife’s life, and that the effort it takes to have them is quite possibly worth it.