This series of photos of us from Nirav Patel shows one of the many things I love in Perry Rhodes—his gentle, helping spirit. ⁣

He has never been too prideful, too tired, or too busy to help me when I need him. It doesn’t matter what the task is, he finds a way. It could be something small like helping me into my wedding dress. Something big like driving our two dogs across the country so I can be with them while I wait for Mom to recover from cardiac arrest. Something new like learning how to format an entire book in Indesign for our From the Dust project. Something draining like moving into a meth house so I can get stories from Mom for my memoir. Something silly like letting me pick an enormous Christmas tree even though he knew it wouldn’t quite fit in the house. He finds a way. ⁣
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The problem usually lies with me asking for the help in the first place. I’d done things pretty much on my own before Perry came along and after almost a decade of being together he can often anticipate my needs. That’s part of love, don’t you think? At least it is part of our love. That we’re so connected that we can feel the needs of one another. That’s what a partnership is, at least our partnership. We help each other, lifting each other up whenever we can. The big things, the little things. They all matter. Especially the little things.

We talk a bit about how we help each other in work, in art, and in life on Jai Long’s podcast Make Your Break. It’s worth a listen just for Jai’s insight alone.