A noble profession

Whenever I tell people what The Husband does for a living, they gush about how wonderful he must be, how patient, how rewarding, how kind. All of these things are true. He's a special education teacher, working mostly with children with autism or other disorders that require the children to be in special needs classrooms. The Husband IS a kind, patient man who loves his students and feels the joy of emotional rewards when his students succeed at a milestone they struggled with in the past.

It's interesting to me to hear all of these comments, but one in particular always strikes me: the use of the word "noble." I usually apply "noble" firefighters and cancer researchers and Girl Scouts who stand outside the grocery store peddling their cookies (what could be more noble a vocation than to ensure that my midnight cookie cravings are satisfied?). However, The Husband and I met in high school. I've seen him in rented tuxes more times than I can count on one hand, we helped each other recover from his 21st birthday celebration (perhaps our least noble undertaking, by far), and I watch him play "Ninja Gaiden" until midnight.

But then, I remind myself that nobility comes in far greater capacities than in what one does for a living. It comes from kissing scraped knees, changing squirmy toddlers, teaching a little boy how to pee while standing, holding my hair while I puke, sitting by my side during hour 26 of labor, and calling to say hi just because.

And so, when someone says, for the 13th time in a month, "Wow, he must be a really great person!" I smile graciously and say, "Yes, he's quite the noble guy, isn't he?"

And so....I'm happy to be married to such a noble man.