“I get by with a little help from my friends.” – The Beatles

6 December

“The Human Condition: A User’s Manual,“ by Arnold Kunst

“You’ve had a terrible day. They’re talking about you at work behind your back and you’re really furious. You get home at 6:00 PM and ask your wife, ‘How was your day?’ She says, ‘I’ve had a terrible day. They’re talking about me at work behind my back and I’m really furious.’ 

What do you do? Well, if you have half the brains God gave a goose you’ll say, ‘Tell me all about it.’ Then for the next hour or two you will listen. When you do speak it’s to ask/say clarifying things only – ‘so you said this, and she said that, is that right’? In short, you keep your hyper-active fix-it gene under strict control. [Spoiler alert: she’s got a fix-it gene of her own, so she doesn’t necessarily need yours.] Hold off offering advice until she asks for it – ‘So, what do you think I should do/say/decide?’ Two hours later, at 8 o’clock, she may say, ‘And how was your day?’ There’ll be time enough to answer her.”