Porous

Transcript

“Eh, that would have been fine,” I shrugged. 

I’d commented that someone I follow on social media had recently had a baby they’d named “Elijah” and were calling him “Eli.” 

My oldest perked his ears up as I said, “We almost did that with you.” 

“What?” He asked.

“Named you Elijah but called you Eli.” 

“Why didn’t you?” He exclaimed, “Elijah is an awesome name.” 

“I didn’t like the ‘juh’ sound with your middle name ‘Joseph.’ The ‘juh-jo’ thing. I didn’t think it sounded as good.”

But when I shrugged and declared it would have been fine, my husband’s jaw dropped. “You had a very strong opinion about that then.”

He was right, I did. 

And, while anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I still do have very strong opinions, believe it or not, the areas about which I hold those opinions have shrunk and are shrinking dramatically, at least as compared to ten to fifteen years ago. 

I mused about this for a moment and then reflected, “I was so used to having to defend and to dramaticall…