I Know That I am the Luckiest

Comments 7 by Rebecca Bollwitt

When John and I were separated by thousands of kilometers before he made the move to Canada we used to send each other video postcards. One evening when driving back to the city from his parents’ house he put his camera on the dashboard of his car and spoke to me while cruising through the rolling countryside. In the background was Couches in Alleys by Styrofoam featuring Ben Gibbard [YouTube] and when John finished his message he turned the camera out, facing the road, and captured a fiery amber sunset falling gracefully from the sky as though slowly and peacefully embracing the earth.

Since then, I’ve enjoyed being able to travel and explore highways across this continent with him. Driving home from Osoyoos along the Crowsnest the other weekend I had tears come to my eyes several times. We were carefree, meandering along a well-traveled highway nestled between mountain ranges and valleys while the tunes on the radio made us both sing along whenever we felt like joining the chorus. There are few places on this planet that make me wish I could freeze time and soak in their majesty, and for some reason my thoughts always come back to Iowa.

I had never been to the Midwest before I met John and during our whirlwind tour for Thanksgiving last year, passing the signs for the famous covered bridges of Madison County and the birthplace of John Wayne, the beauty of the landscape won me over yet again.

I have a sneaking suspicion that these warm feelings, thoughts and memories are not so much about the locations themselves, but the people I was with – in particular, the person who shared these travels with me. I’ve been very lucky in my life to experience such places and to have met people whose hospitality and generosity can only be shadowed by the goodness of their hearts.

If there is one place that I could remain for the rest of my life, however, that would be in the arms of my husband, who is celebrating his 30th birthday today. “He’s not North, my South, my East and West,” and I look forward to exploring the ends of the earth with someone so full of life and spirit that it humbles me each morning when I get to be held in his arms.

The title of this post is from a Ben Folds song

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7 Comments  —  Comments Are Closed

  1. Keira-AnneWednesday, September 24th, 2008 — 9:35am PDT

    This was a beautiful post, Becky. You made my eyes sting a little bit too!

    Happy Birthday, John 🙂

  2. BethWednesday, September 24th, 2008 — 9:41am PDT

    Awww, Rebecca that’s beautiful! It makes me happy when two wonderful people have found each other and know how lucky they are to have done so. Happy birthday to John!

  3. Cinci CsereWednesday, September 24th, 2008 — 9:58am PDT

    I am melting! Looking forward to having a husband soon too 🙂

  4. RaulWednesday, September 24th, 2008 — 12:56pm PDT

    John Bollwitt is an amazing guy and as such he deserves an amazing wife like you, Rebecca. Happy Birthday John!

  5. TimWednesday, September 24th, 2008 — 7:57pm PDT

    lovely words bec
    john you dont need to be told do you!
    have a great birthday mate!
    best wishes for both of you from down under.
    tim

  6. MattThursday, September 25th, 2008 — 7:52am PDT

    Aw, what a sweet post! 🙂

    Funny music trivia bit about the “Couches in Alleys” song, in 1999 James Figurine (Ben Gibbard’s co-conspirator in The Postal Service) did a cover of a 1984 Berntholer song called “My Suitor”, whose melody (sung by a female vocalist) is almost identical to Styrofoam’s vaguely oboe-like instrumental countermelody in “Couches and Alleys.” A very cool bit of musical borrowing and retooling I think, or at worst an interesting bit of subconscious echo. It’s like that little melodic fragment played the telephone game across the minds of multiple artists. I love those things in songs.

  7. Death Cab for Cutie at the Pacific Coliseum » Vancouver Blog Miss 604 by Rebecca BollwittThursday, June 18th, 2009 — 12:13pm PDT

    […] Cutie has a special place in my heart. John introduced their music to me when we were dating and a song by Ben Gibbard will forever remind me of him. We even played Death Cab at our wedding and we walked out to the […]

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