Are
you in a living-together relationship?
Are
you in grocery shopping for a single household, long-term, maybe
even using one car for carpooling to jobs, dedicated relationship?
Ok.
So,
what compromises are you making?
I’m
just wondering, because I think there are often ones we make,
ones we think we make, and ones we are completely unaware of making.
For
instance… Oreos.
Tigg
likes Double Stuf. I prefer the classic original. (My favorite
part is the chocolate cookies.)
When
it comes to our purchases of Oreos, we compromise. We buy Double
Stuf.
Now
yes, joke fully intended there. Hidden meanings and multiple layers
of joke fully intended there. But there are also some simple realities
involved that stretch beyond the joke.
We
don’t have Oreos in our house all the time. We don’t eat Oreos
every day. These are not cookies that we enjoy so often that it
makes any sense at all to buy a bag of each kind. Just wouldn’t
work. And so, I compromise. Far more often than not, when Oreos
are purchased, it is Double Stuf that are purchased.
This,
however, is more than Oreos.
You
may not eat Oreos. (I mean, I know you like them. We all like
Oreos, so that isn’t it. But you might not buy them and may not
eat them. Fair enough.) But if you live with someone, and that
someone has their own preferences and thoughts, and you equally
contribute to the items in the house, there will be compromise.
In fact, plural, compromises.
Orange
juice. Toothpaste. Bread. Laundry detergent. Something. (And again,
a quick pause to note, because not something. Many things.) Items
where it probably doesn’t make much sense to buy multiple kinds.
There
are times when I wonder if Terry knows I miss regular Oreos. Times
when I wonder about our toothpaste and if she even knows what
I would buy if I wasn’t thinking about her while alone in the
store. Times when I wonder if she recognizes what I have given
up—or, maybe more accurately, what I think I’ve given up—for whatever
reason.
Orange
juice works as a thought. We both don’t like pulp in our juice.
Beyond that part of it, most of my reaction is a shoulder shrug.
I love having it around, and enjoy a glass in the morning. As
long as it has no pulp though, as I pour a glass, I’m quite likely
more concerned by whether or not I just brushed my teeth than
the brand. Hard to consider that much of a compromise.
So
where do compromises happen, and when are they simply choices?
Are compromises more concessions? Sometimes I wonder.
And,
sometimes I wonder if Terry notices when I do make concessions…
sacrifices… compromises. Which in turn, makes me wonder…
Are
there compromises that she’s making that I don’t notice?
I’m
sure there are. But as long as I keep buying Double Stuf Oreos,
it might be hard to convince me of what they may be.