Charades and Other Games

People are always interested in knowing the secrets to a good, successful, and hopefully happy marriage. Now, I think I have a good, successful, and mostly happy marriage but I do not presume to know anything more than most others do...except for one key ingredient. And that is...wedded bliss hinges on willingness and ability to play games.

Seriously, think about couples you know...they challenge each other to finish thoughts, fill in the blanks, understand the meaning behind "thingy," and interpret hand motions.

As an example of this, yesterday I was telling Scott about how I'd used the air compressor to try to put air in the car's tire. Yes, I only tried because I couldn't find the right fitting. Honestly, I didn't look. I've looked before and not been able to find them. I've always gotten the right stuff out of Scott's truck, but he had that at work. Since the correct piece wasn't on the compressor it was only an attempt to put air in...luckily, the tires weren't that low and the warning on my dashboard went away when the temperature warmed up so all is well.

Anyway, I wanted him to be impressed by my autonomy but due to my lack of story telling skills he ended up laughing at me. See, I started telling him about the yellow thingy.

"Hose," he suggested.

"Yeah, I guess, but it's all twirly."

"OK. The coiled hose?"

In the end he was sufficiently impressed, because I reminded him to be. And I now know the twirly yellow thingy attached to the air compressor is a coiled hose. Good info to have.

The bottom line is, communication has long been known to be crucial to healthy, loving marriages. It must not be forgotten that interpretation, comprehension, and translation are all part of communication.