Throughout
years, I'm happy to report, I have learned a thing or two about myself. My only regret is I have not learned more than a few things.I could make a long list of things I have not yet learned in life. My hope is, of course, to shorten this list drastically. Presently, I want to zero in on one thing I have learned, which has stood me in good stead for many years; how to have an argument with yourself and win.
I once thought I could argue with my Significant Other and win. It took years to realize (1) women, wives in particular, do not argue like men.
(2) Even if I win, I lose, if you know what I mean.
In light of this important marital lore, I have long since ceased arguing with Gracious Mistress of Parsonage.
When sitting in my easy chair, minding my own business, and my wife flies around corner and stands in front of me with both hands firmly placed on her hips, I immediately say, "It's my fault, Honey, I did it and I'm sorry. I'll never do it again."
I don't even try figuring out what I did wrong.
Because of this, I have focused on arguing with myself. It is, if I may say so, an art that takes years to master. The key to arguing with yourself and winning is having a good relationship with yourself. This in itself may take years to accomplish and some people, unfortunately, never achieve this in their lifetime.
Let me illustrate something that occurred this week.
A friend for over 35 years contacted me about his granddaughter living in area and wondered if I might have some time to visit her. Naturally, I said I would be delighted.
I found her address and my wife and I stopped in several times without success. We stopped in morning, in afternoon and in evening, but we never found her at home.
Then we had a breakthrough; we discovered she was working at a local restaurant. Within a few days, we stopped by restaurant for lunch and requested her table.
She waited on us, took our order, brought our lunch and was a very gracious and wonderful waitress. We didn't want to intrude, so we just had lunch and went home.
This past week I had some errands on that side of town, so I decided to drop in for lunch and introduce myself. It was one of those days when traffic was dreadful.
As usual, I was running a little late with my schedule. I happened to look at my gas gauge and noticed I was on empty.
I did a little mental calculation and discovered enough money on my person for gas or lunch, but not both. My credit card, attached to my checking account, was "filthy-lucre-challenged" at time.
