Best Man - thanks to women!

Ø  Best Man – thanks to strong women and Girl Power–

I have a lot of women in my life. I am a very lucky man and a better man for it. Every one of them continues to impact my life and who I am every day, even those that have passed and are not physically with me, still have a great influence and spiritual presence that helps me. Women are great! Guys are great too, but this writing isn’t about them, it’s about women. I love women!

So that you keep reading and don’t start making stuff up about me and my love of women, understand that I am happily married to a beautiful lady for 25 years and counting. I have two beautiful teenage daughters. I have three beautiful sisters. A beautiful mother. A beautiful sister-in-law. We have beautiful God Mothers to our daughters. And so many more beautiful women in our extended family. They are pretty, and some are drop-dead gorgeous, but when I say beautiful, I mean in body, soul, spirit and heart, inner beauty and strength of character.

I grew up with three sisters, no brothers in our family, and since the age of eleven with a single mom. A mom who had been a stay-at-home mom, and who had to become a working single-mother of four in the early 1970s. The Age of Aquarius. It wasn’t easy for her, but she adapted and began a successful and respected career. She managed to raise my sisters and I through teen years when the term “latch-key kids” arose, we too had to adjust and learn and grow to be a bit more independent, and at the same time to be more dependent and supportive of one another. Trust me, I was no “father figure” or “man of the house”, I was a brother and son and a damned ornery one in my teens at that, so it wasn’t simple, minding my manners, doing my chores, behaving well, and what a good boy, time of my life. My mom and my sisters helped me get through all that, and I helped them.

I learned nuances of a female household, the “rules” not always spoken or spelled out but still clearly defined. I knew when to stay out of things and when to lend an ear or advice, more insight really. I learned to care and remember little things that were important to each of them. I learned what certain “looks” meant and became more in tune with unspoken communication.

Each of my sisters has their own story, their own tale of trials and tribulations, of challenges, obstacles, hurdles, mountains to climb, walls to break down, adventures had, lessons’ learned good and bad. I can tell you that each of them and I, made it through high school, into colleges, into various jobs, into and out of relationships. We all have children that are unique, intelligent, strong, individuals that seem to be following a good path. I trust my sisters and count them as my closest friends.

My grandmothers, and a great-grandmother, blessed my life, and yes I was privileged to get to talk, visit and learn things from a great-grandmother – her story alone is worthy of a book. My Aunts and Cousins, each of them truly had an impact on their immediate families and beyond to extended families and community.

As an only boy in this household, I needed a buddy and as irony might have it, I connected with a neighborhood schoolmate. He too was an only boy in family of four sisters! This family quickly became my second family as I spent as much time running in and out of that backdoor, kitchen and family room as my own. Here too I was surrounded and “adopted” into a family of intelligent, strong, independent, artistic women; sisters, mother, grandmothers. I couldn’t avoid the opposite sex even if I tried. Their influence was everywhere I turned. Thank God.

I met my love, friend, wife, when I was still a teen working a summer job. She too is a strong, independent, yet a very family centered woman. I soon had the privilege of meeting more amazing women in her family. Grandmother, Mother, Sister, and lots and lots and lots of Aunts, Cousins, Dod-Mothers; a big Catholic Hispanic family with family history and roots in Colorado and New Mexico extending back before those were even State’s, for that matter before America was America. These women were Matriarchs of generational families. I very quickly found I was embraced, quite literally, into this dynamic bunch of women, and I learned some more things of a cultural nature with respect to women, relationships, “rules”, and honored respect of traditions. Though we were from very different families and cultures, I believe we both knew we were meant for each other. We both had growing to do, life lessons to learn, adventures to be had, college and jobs to keep us going, so we didn’t marry for almost ten more years, but that entire time we remained very close, supportive of one another, in contact and communicating always, and we have boxes of letters to prove it. (I’ll interrupt for one second – kids, mine and yours reading this now, write letters and cards, and notes, to those you care for and love. You can save these and look back at them. Your phone, IPad, PC texts and messages on FaceBook most likely won’t be the same, if even there, in twenty years when you want to reminisce some. And never pass an opportunity to spend true, real, face-time with those you care for; friends, family, loves).

All these women in my family, in my life past and present, and including girls/women who I’ve been in school with, had friendships with, dated, worked with, admired, they all continue to influence me positively and push me to keep learning to be the best man I can be and I thank them all for that gift. My hope for the World is that barriers for women will continue to be broken down, that those still oppressed and ruled-over by male dominated politics and religion, will rise up in their strength and independence, and that every man will come to respect and appreciate that we cannot be the “Best Men” we can be, until that time.

Peace and Girl Power to you all.

Roberta Belle Easter Roberts - at 94 years

R.I.P.