My husband and I took his mother out for her birthday last night. I'm not especially fond of my mother in law. She's a nice and relatively harmless soul, but she's an extremely fundamentalist Christian, and fan of conspiracy theories in all forms. To call her credulous would be an understatement. Example: She thinks the entire population of China is in on a vast conspiracy to kill the Americans and she cites the lead in children's toys as an example of this deliberate and insidious plot. Apparently the toddlers were a good initial target demographic for their extermination plans. No word yet on why their trying to kill off one of their most profitable customers when they could simply wait a few years and buy the country from under us.
Back when she was still with her husband, and when I was at least more nominally Christian than I am today, I found her somewhat more tolerable, but lately, listening to her prattle on is something like having someone shove angry hedgehogs down my ear canals. It's like the woman has no reflection, she can't see herself. She has an odd gift for sarcasm, and the number of snide remarks she's made concerning her estranged husband since his departure have been countless, but if you suggest to her that she's made any at all, she is a picture of affronted innocence. But I have to stop now, I could rail on forever on this less than interesting subject.
She has decided I don't love her son properly and accused me of such last night. Talk about affronted. It's always particularly annoying when people are right for the wrong reasons. She has no idea what she's talking about, but she could be correct anyway. M is not one to inspire passion in those around him. He's a very nice man, stable, caring, thoughtful, mature, all good things to have in a spouse, but my feelings toward him are mostly tepid anymore.
I thought, when I met him so long ago, after having gotten out of a violently abusive relationship, that he would really be a perfect match. Temperamentally we're very similar, and have enough overlap of interests to maintain a friendship indefinitely. I was pretty sure it was a relationship I could contentedly live inside until I dropped dead. Unfortunately, I and my priorities keep altering, often without my permission.
So, I'm coming to a bit of a crossroads, and I'm still working out what to do. More details later.
