huffingtonpost.com – Excerpted from “Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey Between Genders” by Joy Ladin [University of Wisconsin Press, $26.95]
My wife knew something was wrong with me, but she believed – she wanted to believe, and I worked hard to enable her to believe – that the problem wasn’t a threat to our life together, that it was a character flaw or a neurosis, a willful refusal to allow myself to be happy. Happiness was right there, all around me, like a fragrance, if only I would let myself breathe.