A Fairly Odd (First) Couple

According to Mrs. Miyuki Hatoyama, wife of Japan's newly-elected prime minister Yukio Hatoyama, Tom Cruise used to be Japanese. In this article, Mrs. Hatoyama is described as a "tarento"--a sort of TV personality who does just about everything, and is rather expected to be exciting and different from us normal folks. Mrs. Hatoyama claims, among other things, to have visited Venus and to have met Tom Cruise in a past life, when he was Japanese (he must have been a bad Japanese to be punished with being reborn as an American!). Apparently, her husband doesn't frown on her eccentricities, but encourages her. He also submits to Mrs. Hatoyama's extensive knowledge of "life composing"--she selects his wardrobe and styles his hair. Mrs. Hatoyama met the Mr. in the 70s in a San Fransisco restaurant. They married after Mrs. Hatoyama had divorced her first husband. Rather scandalous for an up-and-coming politician like Mr. Hatoyama, but he says, "I chose her from all womankind." It's not in this article, but in another the Prime Minister says his wife is "like an energy refueling base" and that he looks forward to returning to her after a long day of work.

Many commentors on this and similar articles point out how unfit Mrs. Hatoyama's flamboyant personality is for being Japan's First Lady, but I think as a couple they are SO CUTE, and a great example for many societies in which divorce rates continue to climb and politicians too are subject to scandals and rocky marriages. Mrs. Hatoyama supports her husband as the nation's PM, and, far from dampening her personality, she is able to utilize it in helping him. She "brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life" (Prov. 31:12); in return he is supportive of her, warm, and quite devoted. The Hatoyamas may not be the most normal couple out there, but their marriage is seems awfully sweet, and the simple kindness they show each other isn't met with enough in marriages these days.

I hope if I ever marry I can be an "energy refueling base" for my husband, though I don't suppose I'll find it necessary to test his patience with claims of extraterrestrial jaunts.