I’ve seen it more than once, an older couple out to dinner with each other but not really with each other at all. The wife sits there pushing her potatoes around her plate and while the husband reads the news paper right in front of her. I literally mean right in front of her. He doesn’t just lay the paper on the table in front of himself and read it. Instead, he holds the paper out and upright in front himself like a paper wall between himself and his lifelong spouse. I have to admit that I have seriously considered taking my table ambiance candle over there and setting the paper on fire right there in his hands! Every time I see this I wish the waiter from Monty Python would show up with his conversation menu and make a suggestion!
Why does he think it’s ok to read the paper while his wife sits there pushing food from one side of her plate to other. Is she really that boring? Does he believe he is finished getting to know her? Is there nothing left for them to explore? I watch and wonder if he will ever set the paper aside and share with her what he found so interesting inside of it for the past twenty minutes. He never does. Finally, the waitress brings the bill. He folds and tucks the paper under his arm, snatches up the bill and walks to the register knowing she will follow – as always.
It drives me crazy to see this! But have you noticed that we who are a bit younger (and from another generation) are slipping into the similar pattern? You may be in it right now. We can surf our cell phones enjoying an endless stream of updates regarding the feelings and experiences of all our friends and miss the chance to know, explore, and create new experiences with our spouse.
So, if I may, I’d like to offer up a menu of conversation choices for your dinner this evening…
A Course of Conversation:
Appetizer: What’s one of your favorite memories of you and I? Did we build it or did it just happen?
Salad: What is one new experience you would like to have with me?
Main Course: If we could accomplish one thing together by this time next year what would it be?
Dessert: What is one small thing you are looking forward to in the next week and why?
Caution… we must warn you that this kind of conversation will create a strange experience of satisfaction and desire for more! Enjoy.
If you do decide to taste test this LoveMarriage course of conversation we’d love to hear from you about it!
“When he had gone back up and had broken the bread and eaten, he talked with them a long while until daybreak, and then left.”
~ Acts 20:11 ~