What more can any man ask for?

 

Feb. 25, 2012

 

This is one of those years where everything is the 40th anniversary of something important in my life.

But it amazes me that had a stayed married to my first wife, we would be celebrating our 40th anniversary today.

Well, maybe celebrating is a little too drastic a word, since it was a farce back then designed to lure the judge into keeping me out of jail

“Look, your honor, Al’s respectable now, he’s married and everything,” my famous mob lawyer might have told him.

But in some ways, my first wife is one of my best friends, someone who raised my kid right, even if at times over those four long decades, I had to come to her rescue more than once.

It’s the role I play, even when I don’t mean to.

For most of the 1970s, I wanted nothing more than to get back together with her.

Then, when we reconnected in the 1980s, we both realized that I made a better friend than a husband, and that I could be counted on to remain loyal to her in that way for the rest of our lives.

I guess that’s what I am celebrating today.

And I’m really glad this woman came into my life, bore my child, and is still my friend.

What more can any man ask for?