marry tale #2: the kitten
Once upon a time there was a man and a woman, who decided to become the husband and the wife. They were very new at being the husband and the wife and had no skills at it. And so they had a problem. They weren’t quite sure how to handle it, but they didn’t want to resort to the so-called wisdom of their elders. Clearly it had not served them well.
When they had the same problem again, the wife said, “let’s call it the kitten.”
The next time they had the problem, the husband said, “We’re having the kitten again.”
“Okay,” the wife said. “If we don’t change something, we’re going to keep having the kitten.”
“We should have a plan about what we’re going to do when we have the kitten.”
“That’s two different things.”
“I see your point.”
“Actually,” the wife said, “it’s two different ways to handle the problem of the kitten. One is to try to prevent the kitten; the other is what to do if we fail to prevent the kitten.”
“We work so well together.”
“As to point number one, it seems like we have the kitten when we are tired.”
“I agree.”
“So, I suggest that if one of us is tired, he or she hangs a tired card on the door between as soon as he or she gets home from work.”
“If a card is up, we won’t talk to each other. We can just wave hello.”
“It’s brilliant,” the husband said.
“As to point number two, which would occur if the aforementioned plan fails, whoever sees the kitten first, stops talking and goes to hang a kitten card on the door between.”
“Brilliant,” the husband said again.
And so they lived together ever after.
