Ever Had One Of Those Fights…

Ever have one of those fights where you and your husband scream at each other and slam doors and freak out and don’t even stop twenty minutes in when you realize you can’t remember what you’re upset about but instead continue to loudly bang pots and pans around in the kitchen and huff indignantly and roll your eyes like you’re getting paid for it?

Yeah. Me neither.

But you guys…I have discovered the SECRET to conflict resolution.

I swallowed my pride. I opened the bedroom door and I showed him…this.

 

And Kyle, bless his heart, did this.

This is why I love being married.

What silly tricks have you and your spouse/partner learned to help resolve arguments?

love, elizabeth

Day 5 - Artistic Differences or What's a compromise without a shouting match to get things going?

So remember when I said this blog might end up being a metaphor for marriage? Moi = righter than rain. I've compiled the skeleton of the argument for your reading pleasure (or maybe just to make you feel better about the last stupid fight YOU had with someone you love more than life).

In summation: Kyle is a fan of representational art (ie. art that looks like the object it's supposed to). So when Elizabeth says she thinks the sky should be made out of strawberries and she wants to write poems on the ocean waves and wouldn't it be lovely if there was a green sea monster in the distance, Kyle scratches his full head of dark wavy Irish hair and blinking green eyes at her and says, most politely, "I think that would look stupid." So then Elizabeth takes a deep breath, trying not to roll her eyes at the complete idiocy of a man who couldn't possibly understand the DEPTHS of her artistic genius and says, sniff, sad look down, "Oh...Oh, well...that's okay. We don't have to do that. We'll just," sigh, brave look, "do whatever you want." Then there was some general accusatory grumbling about manipulation and some exasperated, "Why do we always have to do things YOUR way?" sorts of moments and maybe something was said about dividing assets and sleeping on the couch...and somehow, it ended with, "Let's just leave the sky part for last since we agree on the ocean and the ship" and "Okay." That's some fine conflict resolution right there!

So tonight we did some practice painting on a little extra primed canvas we'd saved from the scraps. But mostly, we just tried to remember why we thought it was important to do an art project together in the first place. Oh, yeah. Because we love each other. No, really. We do. Pay no attention to the strangling sounds. Kyle's just choking back tears. RIGHT, honey? See you guys tomorrow!