It takes two to make a thing go right....

It takes two to make it outta sight...
Hit it...

(If you can finish that song lyric, I love you like I would marry you)

I just read an old blog post on a stranger-friend's blog, and he was venting about how his son doesn't really like to read, and my friend is an avid book junkie.

I have two boys. Two very different, wonderful boys. Both smart, both funny, both considerate, polite, devilishly handsome (biased) young men.

One reads...the other...well, notsomuch. I mean, he can read...he will read...but he doesn't thirst for it. Doesn't hunger for it. Doesn't put a book down and want to talk about it, or read more by that author or laugh out loud while he's reading. That's just my Owen.

Alex on the other hand? Insatiable. My stranger-friend blamed the video-game, movie-driven society in which we live. But Alex grew up in the Playstation era - and still, he reads. And reads. And reads. I gave him "Lord of the Flies" at Owen's age. I couldn't imagine Owen reading that right now. I started Alex on all the classics at Owen's age...he devoured them. Animal Farm, 1984, Brave New World, Call of the Wild, Treasure Island, Count of Monte Cristo, Of Mice and Men. Things most kids don't ever read voluntarily and certainly not until high school. But I was running out of "chapter books" and they were clearly beneath him. So onward we went into the novels I loved in my teens.

But what I've come to learn, what I've come to love...are those differences. Owen is my athlete. He loves sports, all sports. Loves watching them, talking about them, projecting them. He loves checking the stats, knowing the stats, comparing the stats. He loves cars. Being able to recognize cars on the road, talking about which year made the best model of a particular car. He's my more outgoing one, my compassionate one. Alex is my reserved one. My reader. My thinker. My quick-wit...he would no sooner watch sports than light himself on fire. He'll finish a book as soon as humanly possible because he craves the ending. He likes knowing technical details about everything. He likes watching the same movie over and over and over to pick up the one-liners and use them in every day life. He's my musician, a lover of all sorts of music.

It's brilliant! Because I love all of these things, too!! I love watching sports! I love talking about sports. If I wasn't half deformed and had any coordination I would love to play sports! I love cars! I used to spend my time with my friend John Steffen talking about cars to an exhausting extent. I love to read! I love talking about books. And I do love watching movies over and over again to pick up the one-liners and use them in every day life. I love music. Love to listen to it, sing it, feel it, play it, see it.

In short I just feel fortunate to have my two very different boys to share so many of my different passions with. And the one they share is the most important of all! They love food!!! I can take them anywhere and they will try anything! They love it when the house smells of vegetable soup stewing away in the crock pot or a good pot of sauce on the stove.

So in the beginning of the new year - I say, celebrate your differences!! Celebrate the differences in the people you love! Every different person you have in your life brings something new to your table...and isn't it wonderful??