Three Years In Peru

So Meg and I burned our Passports this morning and have decided to stay in Peru for at least three years. Actually, the title refers not to how long we are staying but our three-year anniversary today. Plus, I think if we burned our Passports we might be staying here for longer than three years! We're heading into town again tonight to eat dinner at a place the Allens highly praised called Cicciolina. The New York Times actually gave this restaurant high a review, so two recommendations is enough for us. We're also both taking most of the day off tomorrow to hike, relax, reflect, and enjoy our last few days in the Southern Hemisphere. (By the way, when the water drains in the sink it drains clockwise. What direction does your water drain?) So we won't be staying in a Bed and Breakfast like we did the last two years, but I can't say I'm disappointed about being in Peru and waking up to look out our our windows and see mountains 360 degrees around us. A good anniversary song that Meg and I both love is "Start with the Ending" by David Wilcox. Being honest and making each other stronger is what we try to make our marriage about. What I love about this song is that it says that death must come before life in a very domestic, artistic fashion. Here are the words:

The secret of a happy marriage,
maybe you should write this down
If you want to keep a love together,
the best way is to end it now
Because when you both know its over,
suddenly the truth comes out
You can talk about your secret passion,
you can talk about your restless doubt.

When there's no pretending,
then the truth is safe to say,
Start with the ending,
get it out of the way
Now there's no defending,
because no one has to win
Start with the ending,
its the best way to begin.

After you have both decided,
you were missing something that you need
The ways that you were too short-sighted,
get easier for you to see
And after all the expectations
shatter on the kitchen floor
You just see another human suffering,
and you wonder what the war was for.

When there's no pretending,
then the truth is safe to say,
Start with the ending,
get it out of the way
Now there's no defending,
because no one has to win
Start with the ending,
its the best way to begin.

Happy anniversary darling,
we go back a long, long time
I think about our lives together,
I'm so grateful you are here in mine
And I know you'll keep on changing,
you're moving in this dance with me
I love the way we embrace the future
and keep the past a memory.

So there's no defending
that the old ways could remain
We start with the ending
and things will never be the same
Now there's no defending,
because no one has to win
Start with the ending,
its the best way to begin.