Thanks to Missy for getting me back on line. Ya'll might be sorry.
Where were we...Oh yes...we were talking about underwear...specifically OZ singlets.
I had more ramdom thoughts this morning as I was getting dressed for work. It must be an age thing. It may surprise some of you to learn that Kathie and I have not always seen eye to eye on every detail related to family life. One of the things that husbands only learn through sad experience is that wives can live with irritations for a long time...but the frustration will eventually bubble up...and boil over. And then it often comes as a blind-side hit, as an emphasis to a completely unrelated issue...like it has been reserved for that perfect moment.
One issue that came out of the blue for me, was Kathie's revelation that she had been irritated for years that I did not turn my underwear right-side-out before throwing them into the dirty clothes hamper. (I thought I was doing well to actually get the underwear off the floor and into the hamper.) Kathie had faithfully washed my underwear, turned them right-side-out, folded them, and put them in the drawer, for years. One day she did not put the underwear away. It was stacked on the bed. I'm not brightest light on the tree (a reference in deference to Christmas)...but I did think that there might be a message lurking there. Was she upset about something? Well...yes...apparently she was, but it had nothing to do with underwear. She just used the underwear as an exclamation point to the fact that, in addition to the more serious issue, I was generally oblivious and unappreciative. She made it a point to explain how irritated it made her that she had to turn my underwear right-side-out.
I was stunned. I have to plead guilty about the oblivious part, but I was stunned mainly because it would not have hurt my feelings in the least to have my underwear delivered wrong-side-out. That was never an expectation. So I suggested that I would be happy as a clam if Kathie would simply deliver the underwear to me wrong-side-out. And I would be perfectly happy to turn the underwear right-side-out each morning as I put it on. Who knew!
Problem solved. Sometimes we hold on to, and even entertain, irritations way too long. But it was a joint learning experience...Kathie's happy...I'm not quite so oblivious...I think about my wrong-side-out underwear every morning while dressing.
It makes me smile.
