From The Storyteller
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Hello All: This week I am sharing one of the most important things that keeps me smiling as a happily married man. Enjoy. Doug
Fish “Its name was DeCola's, and it was the place where we bought fresh fish, me to Elaine describing the Chicago I grew up in. My home was just two blocks from my grade school, two blocks from our church, three blocks from the Jewel grocery store, and three blocks from my dad’s office. I never rode a school bus or caught a fish, our wild animals were squirrels, and the only animal we had in our home was a goldfish. Elaine on the other hand grew up in west Texas and tells of long school bus rides, having her own horse, riding in rodeo parades, roping calves, tending chickens, watching for rattlesnakes, and fishing with her dad on every puddle that would hold a small boat. Talk about two totally different backgrounds. This lead me to reflect on how we found each other, got married and continue to celebrate that marriage for almost 40 years. Finding each other originally might be labeled Divine intervention or just plain “dumb luck”, the important thing is it happened and has been working since. Which causes me to offer one of the most important things that has worked for us. I know the exact time and place that I came to this realization occurred. It was a Sunday morning in 1986. We were driving to church on interstate 35 in Dallas, and we were having a very “heated” argument. I was “right” of course (about what long since forgotten), and then it struck me that I would rather lose the argument than continue hurting my relationship with her. Right there on Interstate 35 I told her she was right and asked her to forgive my stubbornness. Immediately the heat was gone. This is when I learned being “right” can be very wrong. Moral: Focus on the important stuff. |