Fairy Meets Mermaid
From time to time, I deem it appropriate to lecture Mr. Doobins about his behavior.
If it were up to him, he would be in another room when the lecture is delivered.
That isn’t an option. But whether he has to stend there and look me in the eye while I deliver the lecture or can take a slightly more casual approach depends on my mood and the severity of the infraction.
On this particular occasion, he was stretched out on his bed with his head under the pillow while I said whatever I had to say. I no longer remember the topic but I do remember going on for a while.
At the end of my remarks, I asked him whether he had understood what I said.
“All I can see is black,” he said.
When Mr. Doobins says something funny, I like to encourage him. Sometimes, that makes him smile and enables us to go back to enjoying being with each other.
So I said, “‘All I can see is black.’ That’s good stuff.”
It worked. His head came out from under the pillow and we got on with our lives.
A couple of days later I had occasion to deliver another talk.
This time he had his head under his blue knitted-cotton blanket.
When I was done, he said nothing.
“Not going to say, ‘All I can see is black?'” I said.
“No,” he said. “All I can see is blue.”
