While reading a critique of today’s strip, I discovered this quote:

While I’m sure Jade must be putting Brent on…at least a little bit, this panel of Brent is my favorite PVP panel in a long long time.

I found this to be very interesting because it never occurred to me that anyone would question Jade’s honesty (beyond Brent), and it made me wonder if I would have read it that way too before I got married.

I remember a time in my early teens, talking to my father about being married, and if he ever questioned his love for my mother. He shocked me by admitting that he really wasn’t in love with Mom anymore. It had moved beyond love (or anything that I might conceive as love) and that they were connected in a way he couldn’t explain. And I remember feeling sad about it. I couldn’t imagine what was beyond love and it all seemed very strange and foreign.

I’m most likely the same age now as my dad was then. Close to it. This month I’m celebrating 13 years with my wife and I think I understand what my dad meant. I thought I understood it when we were newlyweds, but I was a bit off. It’s not just being so in love with someone that you’re oblivious to their faults or malformations. It’s really about being truly connected to the to the truth of a person. Thats something only years of being exposed to the worst and best of them can provide. When after both of you experience all that, and you’re still….home? Maybe that’s the word. I dunno. I see why my dad opted not to try to explain things in more detail.

Anyway, that’s where my heart was when I wrote this strip. It’s funny now to realize that there was a time before that understanding was a natural occurrence.

For the record, for those keeping track of PvP cannon, Jade was being quite genuine.