Sally and I have been a couple/together for the last seven year. This is my third partner. Sally has a similar record. Why do we keep coming back to this partner business is the question? First, I love the story about President Obama unknowingly said into an open microphone at the U.N. General Assembly that he quit smoking six years ago "because I'm scared of my wife." "I hope you quit smoking," he told a fellow attendee, according to audio played by CNN. After the man said he smokes "sometimes," Obama said he chews Nicorette nicotine gum and that "I haven't had a cigarette in probably six years. That' because I'm scared of my wife." Is it fear/accountability that keeps us together? After seven years I am still amazed by the mystery that is Sally. I don’t know about you but I like my toilet paper to come from the bottom of the roll. I would put the toilet paper from the bottom and the next week it was from the top…finally it dawn on me that Sally likes it from the top…just last week we had guests coming and Sally cleaned my bathroom (yes, we have separate bathrooms- would not you if they took the toilet paper from the top) and after she put the toilet paper back the way it was supposed to be from the top, she puts the trash can on the right of the toilet..everybody knows it belongs on the left. These might come as trivial, but there is more. Like she never opens the mail when it comes..I mean we are talking about weeks..Dick opens it as soon as it arrives as though there might be a surprise in it. I do the dishes almost the second people are finished eating while Sally likes to allow them to marinate in the sink. Sally can take 15 minutes to write an email and reads it over and over-she does not make mistakes..Dick writes an email and sends without even reading it and makes many mistakes. Sally likes to show up a few minutes late and Dick likes to be early…. So I am continually amazed at the otherness of Sally, but most important she does audit my existence. She is not only different, but also is the mirror that reflects my own existence. It is like waking up in the morning to a crowd watching your every step. Now, this being afraid, being ‘audited’ is what keeps us alive and even more important keeps us conscious and prevents us from living in illusions. It is the human social dynamic that creates consciousness..not TV/computer screens. If I am going to be the way, the truth and the life I need an other in my life But on the other side of being my fear and having her toilet paper backwards, Sally is an awesome mission machine. I am pretty proud of getting things accomplished, but Sally is way more intent and focused. I am amazed at her ability to make things work. She is the coordinator of a loose band of about 70 volunteers called the Green Community Connections. We do a green living tour, run a web site and, most impressive, a One Earth Film Fest which last year showed 40 films at 17 sites with 2,000 people in attendance. Sally makes it work and won the Green Citizen award of Oak Park last year. I have been around some awesome people in my life time, but Sally is right up there with Slicker. When she is in high gear little else gets done like sleep, eating, cleaning the house or doing the dishes. Not much else can be accomplished if you have focus and are willing to stand behind what needs to be done… Just one more example: she has flirted with going to DC and being part of the 350.org Grandmother’s March which would end at the White House where she might be arrested. Since the President is showing signs of refusing to sign the accord, she has signed up to go through training with Al Gore’s team to develop talks about climate change. And to top it all off she just quit her job to work full time on caring for Planet Earth. Sally and I are a mission team. We are both committed to save Planet Earth from the carbon disease slowly killing it. Zero waste, zero energy and zero water is the only solution. We keep each other sane in the midst of this war…but I am working on her backward use of toilet paper…something must of happened to her in her childhood. Dick Alton, Associate with ICA USA, Green Community Connections and the Interfaith Green Network. Written from Zimbabwe, 2013, helping build a global community. Richard H.T. Alton 166 N. Humphrey Ave, Apt, 1N Oak Park, IL 60302 T:1.773.344.7172 richard.alton@gmail.com Don't let the fear of striking out hold you back Babe Ruth