Laughing with Di – October 2019

 Need pointers for a happy marriage? Let’s have a laugh.
Once upon a Sunday morning…
Husband: So, what’s the plan?
Wife: Tanning, throw in a load of laundry, shower, food shopping, lunch, visit the kids. What’s your plan?
Husband: I have no plan.
#1: Four key words. Remember them well. Men do not have plans. They carry on with their lives, but have no idea there is a “marriage” plan. That is why, wives, it is our duty to steer them toward “our” plan.
#2: Clarity. Never assume. Make yourself speak the words. For example, my husband planned to shampoo the carpets. We are old, so it would take two days per room to remove the furniture then clean. We both stood in the same place looking into the living room. I saw “front to back” vertically. He saw it horizontally. Can you imagine what could have ensued if he said, “I’ll start at the front”?
#3: Laughter. This is essential. Be the two people in the room who see what’s funny when no one else does. One of my husband’s favorite references is the planet, Tralfamadore, used in novels by Kurt Vonnegut. In the last thirty years, at the most inappropriate times (grin), I have used fifty different ways to say, spell and pronounce that word. Each time, he laughs with a look of love in his eyes. In one of my favorite movies, “The Firm”, Tom Cruise and his wife, played by Jeanne Tripplehorn, are in a car after visiting acquaintances and learning sad news. She says, “They have quarter horses, two of them.” He says, “Do two quarter horses make half a horse?” They look at one another and burst into laughter. It is, to me, one of the most real husband/wife scenes in a movie.
I’m off to come up with more plans!