It only took me 35 years but I figured something out
Written 8/24/2024.
My ex-wife and I drove our daughter to college on Friday. That evening we went for a walk around the beautiful campus.
While walking, there was a family fishing and hanging out next to one of the lakes. My ex said we should go around and not bother them. My first thought was to just walk by them and say hi.
This has been a point of contention between us for the 35 years we’ve known each other. I’ve always preferred to move towards a person versus leaving them alone. At first, I thought it may be because I’m more gregarious and she’s more of an introvert.
Then it occurred to me that she was raised in a suburb outside of Chicago while I got my values when I lived in a rural farming community in Ohio.
In Ohio, if we saw someone, we said hi and moved towards them. It never occurred to us that they may not want to say hi back. That’d be crazy :-D.
It wasn’t introvert vs extrovert, rather, rural vs suburb cultural differences.
This evening, we walked by them and said hi to one another. I asked how the fishing was and whether they’d caught anything. They said it was good and had some in a bucket that they’ll bring home to eat.
Saturday morning, we moved our daughter into her single. The process is for her to get her key in the morning, then we do a combination of moving stuff into the room while cleaning it. Vacuuming the floor, wiping down the furniture, beds, base boards, etc. I end up moving the final pieces while mom and daughter finish the cleaning.
We got everything done in about an hour. Then we went out for lunch, final shopping and food stuffs, then wished her well. Right now, I’m typing this somewhere in Ohio at 7:45 pm central time.
Whether we stop for the night or try to push through to arrive around 3 am, who knows. I’m not in a hurry, but it seems like my ex is the one pushing to get home (a 180 from what our usual roles are).
The weather has been amazing.