Communication Gap

The Tale of the Blue Cloth Bundle

By Jeff Salter

I know the pre-marriage counselling sessions deal with a lot of varied topics, including the importance of communication. But sometimes, after decades have passed, maybe we don’t remember all that good advice. Consider this Facebook post from December 2017:
Folks, here’s a true-life lesson about marriage… sometimes it might be better if you just DISCUSS a subject. Case in point —

This is NOT the actual pile of dark blue folded material from my true story.

About 10 days ago, a sizeable (loosely folded) clump of dark blue material appeared on top of my side of the bed. It triggered no recognition for me, so… naturally, I moved it to HER side of the bed.
Next day, it showed up again on my side of the bed.
Again, I moved it back to her side.
This went on for seven days.
Neither of us said a word about the folded clump of dark blue material that we silently moved from one side of the bed to the other.
Clearly, I was communicating: “please deal with your clump of blue material without me having to move it every night.”
Just as clearly, she was (apparently) saying, “here’s a blue clump of material.”
Well, folks, on Day Eight, I finally examined the folded clump of blue material more closely. And that’s when I noticed the loops across one end.
Yep, you guessed it.
It was one of the curtains for my three study windows — the one that had fallen down in about 2014 and King Sipper had turned into a napping spot. So in those three years, it had collected 6.9 pounds of cat hair. Denise had found it, washed it, dried it… and then folded it.
[Wordlessly, of course.]
And then she put it on my side of the bed so I could re-hang it in the window.
* * * *
Funny thing — that set of dark blue curtains which I’d seen every single day for the eleven years (we’ve been in this house)… seemed so completely alien when I saw them folded on the bed.
I think I may get around to re-hanging them some day… perhaps around 2019 or so.
Of course, it’s also possible that I’ll just place that folded clump of blue material back on her side of the bed again. You know, just for old time’s sake.

Question:
Have YOU ever endured a similar communication glitch in which neither of you took the effort to SPEAK?

[JLS #600]

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