{"id":29268,"date":"2023-01-18T18:40:05","date_gmt":"2023-01-18T23:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/?p=29268"},"modified":"2023-01-19T08:11:07","modified_gmt":"2023-01-19T13:11:07","slug":"fifty-plus-years-of-compatibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/2023\/01\/fifty-plus-years-of-compatibility\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifty-Plus Years of Compatibility"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had this idea a while back, after a chat with my spouse about how we’re lucky neither of us like x<\/em>, that each of us should make a list of five things that we both<\/em> like and both<\/em> dislike, without consulting each other, sort of like a five-decades-together retro-compatibility quiz. And then, just to make things interesting, we would compare our lists and publish them on the blog.<\/p>\r\n

Sue added that, besides naming things that we both like and both dislike, we should each list things that “I like but I wished you liked.”\u00a0 I agreed that this would be an enhancement to the project, but not without some risk.<\/p>\r\n

So here we go.\u00a0 I have interleaved our answers, Sue’s in blue, mine in yellow.\u00a0 The order is not important — I arranged our lists so that similar answers appear next to one other.<\/p>\r\n

THINGS WE BOTH LIKE<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
S <\/span> \u2022 Art.\u00a0 Going to museums, art events, music.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
C <\/span> \u2022 Paintings. Especially portraits by the “Old Masters.”<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
S <\/span> \u2022 Restaurants — leisurely meals at familiar, favorite restaurants.\u00a0 Plus dancing.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
C <\/span> \u2022 Romantic dinners.\u00a0 The food, the company, the excuse to get dressed up.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
S <\/span> \u2022 Affection of any kind.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
C <\/span> \u2022 Kind People.\u00a0 “Never a good reason not to be kind.”<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
S <\/span> \u2022 Making one another laugh throughout the day.\u00a0 You’re funny, quick and witty.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
C <\/span> \u2022 The Price is Right — mindless together-time with low-stakes competition.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
S <\/span> \u2022 Being with family — wish we lived closer.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
C <\/span> \u2022 Strong coffee.\u00a0 And iced tea for that matter.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n

THINGS WE BOTH DISLIKE<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
S <\/span> \u2022 Camping of any kind.\u00a0\u00a0 Campfires just get smoke in your hair and there’s never any comfortable seating.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
C <\/span> \u2022 Boating and camping.\u00a0 Boating because of the wind and earaches, camping because of the dirt and bugs.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
S <\/span> \u2022 Boats and boating.\u00a0 A big expense with little reward.\u00a0 Good for sunburns.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
C <\/span> \u2022 Big risks, things out-of-control.\u00a0 We like to run a pretty tight ship.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
S <\/span> \u2022 Inside pets of any kind — except our canary, Piper.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
C <\/span> \u2022 Situation comedies, post-M*A*S*H and Newhart.\u00a0 All the Hollywood stupidity and adolescent double entendres.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
S <\/span> \u2022 Barking dogs.\u00a0 I don’t own a dog and don’t want to hear anyone else’s.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
C <\/span> \u2022 Organized religion — wasn’t so at the outset, but we both eventually got there.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
S <\/span> \u2022 Boring, entitled people who do not listen or mutually engage in conversation.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
C <\/span> \u2022 Right-wing blowhards, mostly because they are so often unkind.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n

THINGS I LIKE THAT I WISH YOU LIKED<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
S <\/span> \u2022 Driving the Z4 with the top down.\u00a0 Always a pleasure, any time it’s 45 degrees outside or higher.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
C <\/span> \u2022 Board games and cards — a way to socialize without having to fuss over food.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
S <\/span> \u2022 My driving.\u00a0 I love going through the gears.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
C <\/span> \u2022 The Simpsons — they’re not as outrageous as you think!<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
S <\/span> \u2022 Onions.\u00a0 I want to put them in everything.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
C <\/span> \u2022 Dedicated shelves for categories of things in the refrigerator.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
S <\/span> \u2022 Fiction, so we could discuss.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
C <\/span> \u2022 Jazz (or any improvisational music).<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
S <\/span> \u2022 Selecting and sending greeting cards.\u00a0 I’m lucky to get you to sign them.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
C <\/span> \u2022 Finances — it would be nice to have a co-decision-maker.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n

FINAL REFLECTIONS<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Sue: I think it’s amazing how well we know one another.\u00a0 I can understand why people get divorced, because I feel so strongly about many of these things.\u00a0 We try to endorse what each other likes in a positive way, and we enjoy making one another happy.\u00a0 If Craig was a dog person, which he is not, I suppose we could have a large lot so he could keep the dog far away with me.\u00a0 But I don’t think there is any circumstance I would want to go camping with Craig.<\/p>\r\n

Craig: Surprisingly, neither of us mentioned liberal politics as a “things we both like” item.\u00a0 Yet I can’t imagine living with a Trump\/Fox News person — a category that didn’t exist fifty years ago.\u00a0 (For that matter, I didn’t see myself as liberal fifty years ago.)\u00a0 I would adjust if Sue wanted to pursue spiritual interests, but it would be different if it led to us living separate lives with divergent values.\u00a0 Our relationship was based on, from the very beginning, individuality and togetherness respected and nurtured, but also shared.<\/p>\r\n

The final section of this exercise begged the question, what if anything do we plan to do about the “I wish you liked” items?\u00a0 Answer: We accommodate.\u00a0 I may yet get Sue to watch The Simpsons.\u00a0 She may yet get me to read her latest read.\u00a0 Neither is out of the question. Even if not, we still got a lot.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had this idea a while back, after a chat with my spouse about how we’re lucky neither of us like x, that each of us should make a list of five things that we both like and both dislike, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interests"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29268"}],"version-history":[{"count":55,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29341,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29268\/revisions\/29341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}