My husband is a numbers guy. When he comes home from his yoga class I ask him, “How was your class?” His answer invariably involves digits of some sort.
“Good. There were 12 people in the class.” Or…
“Good. We did several standing poses.” Or…
“Good. I had planned on the 5:00 class, but I had 2 afternoon meetings so I went to the 6:30 class instead.”
When I return from yoga class, and he asks me the same “How was your yoga class?” question, my reply is typically quite different. As in:
“Awesome. Michelle was there and she was eager to show me how her forward bends are stronger and deeper.” Or…
“Great! I’m so excited about how smoothly my standing pose sequence went.” Or…
“I’m bummed because no matter how hard I try I seem to keep getting my right and left mixed up.”
What does this say about us? About him? About me?
His quantitative answers say a lot about his personality. He values having a finite answer to a question. He likes to tell the facts and let me draw my own conclusions. His continued use of the word “good” indicates that he tends to focus on the positive.
My answers, on the other hand, are a lot like me. Filled with emotion and description. I emphasize for effect and I absolutely LOVE using adjectives! Stronger, deeper, awesome, GREAT!!!!!!!! My answers nearly always invite response which hopefully will lead to conversation.
The truth is, we balance each other well. Both of us are creative-types. And we each have a strong practical side.
Through-out the years of our union, I’ve learned a lot by being with him. I look at the checks & balances, seek clarity, make definitive decisions and take bolder action. I’ve gotten a little better at letting things go.
Marriage has been good for both of us. As for what he’s gotten from being with me, you’ll have to ask him. You can bet his answer will go something like this:
“It’s been a good 12 years.”