A husband is not without honor except in his home
A colleague here at work complimented me recently; she was amazed, she said, "at the breadth of my knowledge.''
That's a nice compliment for a Monday morning, but probably because it was a Monday morning, I wasn't up for it.
"Oh, yeah?'' I answered. "Try being married to it for 26 years. The bloom comes off that particular rose pretty darn quickly.''
I guess I do know a lot of stuff, a lot of it absolutely meaningless this side of "Jeopardy!'' It's the kind of thing that can be pretty impressive at dinner parties, but for my wife, it's strictly "ho-hum."
If I happen to let fly, for example, that Ouagadougou is the capital of the land-locked West African nation of Burkina Faso, which used to have the undeniably cooler name of Upper Volta, Sue is likely to smile tightly and ask me to pass the salt.
She's not impressed. "That's just the sort of thing you would know,'' she'll say.
That's one of the hard truths of a long marriage. It's hard to keep the element of surprise.
That's a nice compliment for a Monday morning, but probably because it was a Monday morning, I wasn't up for it.
"Oh, yeah?'' I answered. "Try being married to it for 26 years. The bloom comes off that particular rose pretty darn quickly.''
I guess I do know a lot of stuff, a lot of it absolutely meaningless this side of "Jeopardy!'' It's the kind of thing that can be pretty impressive at dinner parties, but for my wife, it's strictly "ho-hum."
If I happen to let fly, for example, that Ouagadougou is the capital of the land-locked West African nation of Burkina Faso, which used to have the undeniably cooler name of Upper Volta, Sue is likely to smile tightly and ask me to pass the salt.
She's not impressed. "That's just the sort of thing you would know,'' she'll say.
That's one of the hard truths of a long marriage. It's hard to keep the element of surprise.
posted by Michael Riley at 8:52 AM
1 Comments:
You know what'll impress her? Follow up on a conversation you had with her a few days before; maybe one that she truly believes you weren't listening to, let alone commented on, save for "Hmmmm", and "yes dear".
Something like "you know, I was thinking about what you said yesterday, and chartreuse is an interesting color for the living room - it brings out the green in the upholstery, but I thought perhaps canaray yellow might be the better color...what do you think?"
I'd bet you'd have her at "you know,"!
Conversations about African regions formerly known as Upper Volta at the dinner table for a woman with (how many) kids, lots of work to do, and littel down time may not cut it for your wife. I'm just saying...
Women like to know they're being heard by their husbands, and vice versa.
Margaret
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