Today’s my dear husband’s birthday. It is the first time in thirty-three years that I have not baked him a pumpkin pie for his birthday. I went out this morning and purchased a — o-yuck-o — factory-made-store-bought one. Sure. It’s a name brand, but it still means it’s totally put together by other people (or machines, or both). O-yuck-o! I thought about going to an official bakery, but my pies taste better than even those. I’d probably be feeling really bad about all this if I weren’t on this I-don’t-care medicine for my thyroid. Thing is, I don’t even care that I don’t care. (How did this get back to me? It’s Jeff’s birthday, after all! Blame the meds.)

So the pie may not be “real” but my husband — he’s sure the real stuff.  My hero. I’ve never met a person who is so kind and so wise. And after being with him for more than three decades, I believe I have experience to discern the truth. Jeff is also super-knowledgeable about lots of stuff. I mean, now and then I think that I’m kinda intelligent, but then Jeff will make an off the cuff comment about what’s going on in the world, or after digging into 2,000 to 4,000 year old manuscripts, and my jaw drops to my chest in awe. It’s not at all that he puts me down, but I just feel honored to be in on his rantings and ramblings. But then,because he’s an introvert, most of the extrovert world stomps right over him. But if you’d stop and listen, perhaps you, too, can hear the real stuff.

Can I build a fictional character based on him? I haven’t yet, although I’ve picked some of his character traits to go into my heroes. Is he perfect? Ha. But his compassion and discernment is stuff real life heroes are made of.

So, do you have a real life hero you admire and from which you pick traits for your main character?

(Happy birthday, Sweetie.)