“There is beauty in ordinary things.”

“There is beauty in ordinary things. Isn’t that the point?”

That is the last line of the last episode of the last sitcom that Cindy and I will be binge watching together. The concluding sentiment has to be the best one for any series, similar in meaning to the concluding sentiment of my favorite poem: “We love the things we love for what they are.” And to think, after watching a few early The Office episodes I was determined NOT to watch the entire series.

My initial aversion was due to some characters possessing an annoying blend of unbelievability and repulsiveness at times, known as cringe among sitcom viewers. I appreciate how much easier cringe characters must make writing sitcoms, but cringe alone is void of substance. The main character for the first seven seasons was a cringe character. Steve Carell is a good actor, but not good enough to entice me into watching an entire series.

The final episode changed my mind. This came up in our Netflix queue because a companion was watching The Office with Cindy. I figured I would just watch the final episode as a substitute for the entire series. The final episode was so well done I overcame my aversion and we watched the series from beginning to end, like we have with many sitcoms.

The greatest attraction of this cringe sitcom for me was, oddly enough, the very real and “ordinary” love story between Jim and Pam. Their office romance provided the anchor of substance for the series. I do not remember the last line, fittingly delivered by Pam, from my first watching. I guess I did not have “ears to hear” back then. Now my “ears” were conditioned to appreciate the winding down of a series, coming at the winding down of our own journey.

I am a sap for epic love stories, the stories of overcoming daunting obstacles, obstacles of distance or time or socioeconomic status. Epic romances engage our emotions … along with a little bit of envy for the epic nature of someone else’s love story. All those epic love stories now pale for me in comparison with the “ordinary” office romance, developed over nine seasons, between Jim and Pam.

There is no Cinderella story, no looming Titanic behind this office romance. Jim and Pam are just two ordinary people working at an ordinary office (well, not so ordinary given the cringe characters). Yet I cannot think of a love story evolving better in any venue, movie or series, precisely because of the ordinary but touching believability of how their love evolved.

But perhaps that is just me and the timing of watching the series conclusion, coinciding with the timing of Cindy’s decline. Two years ago at this time my logical left brain calculated that not much time remained for Cindy, based on her rates of physical decline and other empirical factors. My left brain was proven wrong, but now my emotional right brain senses something. You might have noticed it in the nature of recent posts. I suspect you will notice more of that in remaining posts to come.

Even our son must be sensing something as well, though he keeps distant from the tragedy unfolding with his Mom. He has served in the National Guard since 2013, going away mostly one weekend a month, but periodically for a week or more. In June he gave us the contact info for his unit for the first time in five years, “in case something happens.” He also lately requested I tell his Mom that some of the hymns I sing for her at bedtime are from him.

Also in the final episode of The Office another of the main characters laments that he wished there was a way to recognize the good old days while we were still experiencing them. Jim and Pam’s story does that for me. Granted, all the miles Cindy and I have hiked together are a little less ordinary, with wilderness trails replacing office space, but for six years we became good friends, adventure buddies; then we married and became better friends, as should happen with a marriage. We have no heroic tales of romance, we merely found the joy in life during our own “office romance.”

Photo by Mike Hinckley

The Office may have spoiled other love stories for me, at least the epic ones. That’s OK, I now shed enough sappy tears over our own experiences. The beauty of Jim and Pam’s “ordinary” office romance is leading me to fully appreciate our own touching and believable love story.

“There is beauty in ordinary things. Isn’t that the point?”

Yes, Pam, that is exactly the point. Thank the writers and other cast members for me.