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O My America: My Brilliant Wife
by Lawrence Bush
So I was at the Jersey Shore on a rare holiday for my 36th wedding anniversary, and after a quiet walk by myself on the boardwalk, I said to Susan, “You know, I’m such a conservative! I walk around thinking how everybody just leaving everybody else alone really works. Despite everything we’re always thinking about involvement with people, helping people, cooperative society, and all of that, the simple liberty to be left alone really seems to work, to maximize happiness,”
“It’s all a matter of balance,” she replied. “You’re on vacation, you’re relaxed, everything’s good, of course you’re content to be left alone. But if your car breaks down somewhere, you want someone to help. That’s all.”
“You’re right,” I said.
“The problem with ideology,” she added, “is that it pretends that one way or the other is the answer, all the time.”
“I’m going to blog what you just said,” I said.
Lawrence Bush edits Jewish Currents.
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