Joseph L. McGregor, The Most Brilliant Man in America?

No one ever asks why I married Jenny. The answer seems obvious. (In fact, the reverse question seems to be the only one that crosses people's minds.) But today I'd like to pretend that this unasked question was posed.

Underneath the apparent inequality in our marriage lies a larger truth: I really don't deserve Jenny. It never escaped me while in my dating years that my future bride should be a good mother, and a complement to my weaknesses.

All who know Jennifer know how wonderful of a mother she is. She wakes up early each day to prepare a wholesome breakfast. She could never be accused of "babysitting" the kids; rather, she interacts with them to engage their minds. When I get home each day they show me pictures they colored, projects they made, and retell the stories in the books she read to them.

Jennifer is also a pragmatist. She carefully guards against gloomy days. She hates spending money (sometimes her weakness). Where I have proved hopelessly lost in managing the details of life, she has proven that she is the most organized person alive.

And perhaps best of all, she's humbly smart. She's so well-read. Whenever I read something new, we can always discuss it because she's already read something on the issue. But she never flaunts her intelligence.

Of course, she's beautiful. As a young boy when I dreamed up what my perfect wife would look like, she modeled Jenny.

So where does this leave me? It leaves me as perhaps the most shrewd negotiator on earth. Never in the history of mankind has a man so undeserving of his wife married so far out of his league. If there's one accomplishment in my life I'm most proud of, it's that I married Jennifer.