It was senior date night at the cinema last night. Couples
of a certain age packed the theater to cluck at Hope Springs, a movie in which unhappy
Meryl Streep drags repressed Tommy Lee Jones off to intensive couples
counseling. Midway through the movie I leaned over and whispered to my date, “why
doesn’t she just rearrange the furniture?”
We rearrange our marital furnishings about once a decade. I
used to literally move the furniture around when my husband went on a business
trip. I did it for effect. He never knew what he would come home to, so to save
his shins from nasty bruising(“Ouch! You moved the table!”) he made sure not to
go away too often or be gone too long.
Our most recent re-arrangement is a getaway in the desert.
We’ve had a lot of fun establishing a home to fit priorities that are different
from our normal daily life. This culminated in our choice of an area rug to
define a grouping of comfy mission style furniture. It came down to a choice between
this—
 |
| Choice #1 |
and this—
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| Choice #2 |
Conversation #1:
Me: Well, the colors are perfect.
He: And it fits the theme. The pillow will work.
Me: But, it’s kind of a cliché.
He: I was thinking that, too.
Conversation #2:
Me: Wow! Not what I would have picked but
He: Very different from what I thought we said we wanted but
Me: It has energy
He: It has emotion
Me: Yes! It makes me feel good!
He: Will your pillow work?
Me: No, but I don’t care. It’s...zowie.
When “zowie” is part of your mutual vocabulary, your chances
of needing marital counseling diminishes.
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| Pillow for sale |
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