The Bipolar Otaku

I have this friend. He is one of those guys that people either love or hate. He tells it like it is, but he is quick to forgive and to help people. He loves everyone. He's great, and I'd go to the end of the world to help him. Unfortunately, he hasn't been around for a while, so he has told his wife to take the lead in his teaching and to continue his work.

Many people who know him forget that he has a wife. But the worst part is how people treat his wife. She gets blamed for everything, it seems. Some say that she is the cause of all of the people who hate my friend. Some say that she has abused all the loving generosity that he has given her. She's not perfect, so most people don't think that she's worthy of him, but they forget that she is the one that he chose. Some people call her nasty names, and try to convince everyone that they were never married at all, but it's true - they are legitimately married and he would never divorce her. Quite simply, he loves her too much.

The most unusual part is how their "friends" treat her. Some of his friends actually recognize that they are married and married for good. So they take pictures of them together, but they crop her out of the picture. Sometimes they just rip the picture in half and frame that; sometimes they take a knife and cut her head out of the picture; sometimes they will paint their own pictures about what they want him to look like, and then paint themselves as his wife. These are their "friends".

Fortunately, she has they have some real friends. They treat her with honor because he treats her with honor. They recognize that that the two are, in fact, husband and wife in the fullest sense of the word. Those two are, in fact, bound in marriage, in a one-flesh union in the name of God. They have faith that, even when he is not here physically, his spirit will protect her in all circumstances, despite her occasional bouts of foolishness. Most of all, they also know that she now speaks for the household while he is away. Unfortunately he has been away on his father's business for quite some time, so people are more frequently questioning her authority. Worse yet, some people are starting to forget all that he did for the people he loved and they doubt that she was ever had a husband at all.

He has saved my life more than once, so I am ever in debt to him. I try to do everything I can to be a real friend to both him and his wife. Obviously, I should continue to help passing along his teaching and working his works. Shouldn't I also do everything that I can to protect their real image? Shouldn't I defend the authority that he has given her? Shouldn't I help others love her too?