February 2010
When my wife and I got married we soon discovered that we disagreed sharply on some very basic issues. For example, which way up should the glasses be stored in the cupboard? My mother had taught me from an early age to put them upside-down to stop dust falling into them. My wife was firmly of the view that they should be stored the right way up to avoid putting the rims in the dust that accumulated on the shelves. 37 years later it is still an issue.
We have differing tastes as well. If you go into the kitchen in our house, it is not just the orientation of the glasses that reveals who last did the washing-up. If it was my wife, the radio will be tuned to Classic FM. If it were I, the radio will be tuned to the BBC World Service.*
It would be a very boring world if we all had identical tastes and views. I keep reminding myself that it is just as well that some of my wife's tastes are a bit out of the ordinary, otherwise she would never have married me.
Some of the people we meet at CHESS can have very different attitudes from our own. Indeed, they may disagree vehemently with one another on some things. We all need to listen to others' views and their reasons for them. We may have our own minds changed for us or we may change theirs. Even if that never happens, we may still realise that other people can quite sincerely disagree with us for reasons they consider compelling.*
Sometimes it is just a matter of taste. Sometimes we need to compromise. When my wife and I share the washing-up, we turn the radio to Radio 4.
* We've had some sincere disagreements about the grammar of that second paragraph! - Webmaster