Dedicated to the One I Love

Yesterday, my husband hugged me and told me that he couldn't believe he was still in love with me. He says this fairly often and always with a sense of wonder that we still share the same sense of affection and understanding after more than twenty years of living together.

"I should be bored by now," he laughs, "But I'm not. I can't imagine anyone else I'd rather be with."

Today is Valentine's Day, and since I share that same sense of wonder and gratitude, I'm dedicating this post to my friend, lover, and husband, Raúl Antonio Díaz Zegers.

Why do I love this man (apart from the fact that he's handsome, smart, and funny)?

Here are a few reasons why:

In college, when we spent nights arguing over politics until the wee hours of the morning, he always defended his viewpoint passionately but tried to understand mine.

He agreed to take a course called "Power and Gender in Roman Society" on my behalf because it conflicted with Spanish 101, which I was taking so I could understand the dinner conversation at his parents' house. It ended up being once of his favorite courses.

He's such a nerd that I once found him kneeling by the shower door in our coed bathroom, marveling at how the door's mechanism used gravity to make sure that the door always swung shut to the exact same place.

He's such a nerd that I never have to worry about my computer set up or where to get the latest and greatest software, especially open source programs. There's nothing like living with an IT guy.

When he took me to Chile to visit his family's farm for the first time, he told me that he was taking me to the "most beautiful place in the world," and he wasn't lying.

He wanted to have kids right away to "get it over with." As if you ever "get over" having kids! He still keeps asking when our twelve-year-old is going to go to college.

He held me up, literally, for hours when I was having back labor with my second child, Tomás.

He got the kids' science projects banned two years in a row for studying the physics of a rocket and how to make a fountain (apparently the kids managed to soak one another and a few other exhibits).

He's always encouraged me to take risks, whether it's starting a new business or hiking in the Andes, or trying to ride a bike with clip-on shoes and without scrapes, cuts, or broken bones.

He loves languages so much that he's always practicing one of the many he knows or trying to learn new ones. After he studied Anglo-Saxon, we went to see a performance of Beowulf in the original with subtitles (joining what my son said were the "other five people in the Bay Area who care about Beowulf").

He loves his gadgets but puts them to great use, especially his camera.

We bicker a lot (ask our kids), but our ground rules exclude the use of "You never...." or "You always.." Well, almost always.

He hates chores but is always willing to pay someone else to do them.

He knows exactly when I'm feeling upset or scared, and he always asks me why.

He's the one person in the world I trust absolutely and without reservation.

And as he tells me so often, I can't imagine being with anyone else.

Happy Valentine's Day!