Through my eyes
Over the past months you and I have discussed a lot of things. You will remember, one of my pet peeves was observing men and women, men in particular, who in my opinion were not very gracious to one another. I told you of my observations of men and women, married couples I would presume, in which the man, upon entering a restaurant, would walk five paces in front of his wife, not open the door for her, sit down before her and then both of them would stare at the menu and speak only to the waiter -- not having any conversation or only minimal with one another during the entire meal after that. Don't know why that bothers me so much, but it does.
Now, for the purposes of our chat today, let us take the above-described behavior of the couples to whom this applies and imagine their conduct when they first met. Aha. What a difference. We know that when he first saw her, his heart leaped and he thought, "How beautiful she is." And she looked at the man of her dreams and thought, "Oh, if he would only ask me out." So after dating and romantic dinners and flowers, he got up the courage to get down on bended knee and ask her to please honor him by becoming his wife -- which, after a brief second, she joyfully accepted. Blissful, huh? So what happened? How could this be the same couple? Is it human nature to grow apart? I am not talking about divorce or any of the truly heart-wrenching things, just wondering why the little niceties seem to disappear.
I hope as we discuss this, you are not waiting for me to give you the answers, because I can't; however, if you will look back at the title of this piece you will note that some do it right, and let me tell you how I know. I have mentioned to you before that I work out at the Anytime Fitness in North Augusta, and it is lined with upstairs windows that look out on the parking lot of a bank on the corner and a popular eating spot. As one works out there, everyday life is sort of played out before your eyes with people constantly parking their cars and going in and out of the bank and the restaurant. The other day I saw this couple exit the bank and begin to walk to their car. I noticed that they both had smiles on their faces and were locked in animated conversation. As they walked the man took the arm of his wife, eased around to the passenger side of the car, unlocked the door and as she got in, there was this nice little pat on the back, to which his wife responded with an even bigger smile. OK, I know what some of you are thinking -- "I will bet they are newlyweds, or they would not be acting like that." Shame on you. Now I don't know these people so I can't tell you if they are married, but I can tell you this: They had gray hair, they appeared to know each other very well, and their attitude seemed to portray the fact that they were happy with their choice of partners. It was downright refreshing to observe their relationship.
As you read this, I am sure some of you are evaluating yourselves as to your treatment of your wife or husband, and that is good. If you are in this last category, congratulations to you and keep up the good work. If you are in the first group, the "romance is dead" partnership, perhaps you are there because you haven't really thought about it and have just slipped into a pattern of thoughtlessness of which you are unaware. If you are, re-evaluate your position and switch over to the Some-do-it-right group. You will be happier and I will be much happier looking at you.
