Celebrate Diversity

In some minor, not eternally significant ways, Kenny and I are very different. You know how people use the expression, "think outside the box"? Well I'm not very good at that. I'm so deep in the box, it's hard to see even the edge of it. But to Kenny, there is no box. It's almost like he doesn't know how to think "inside the box". This manifests in various ways. I was reminded of it last night when I was changing Brynlee's diaper and turned around to find Kenny ironing (gasp!) on the bed. Yes, ON the bed. I asked him if he wanted me to get the ironing board out, for that was the purpose of its invention. It goes with the iron, believe it or not. He replied that this was how he always did it. I was confused by that, since I haven't seen him iron ever, not even once, in our 3 years of marriage. (Apparently, it's just when he goes to a hotel by himself and needs his work or church clothes straightened up a bit.) But I just had to laugh because again, he was doing something I had never seen done before.

To me, a pen was made for writing, a hammer was made for hammering, and a chair was made for sitting. Do you get what I'm saying? Everything has its purpose, and certain functions to fulfill. Things are supposed to be done a certain way, and there's no reason to vary from that. That's not how Kenny thinks. He finds a hundred different purposes for every item, and can't stand do things in a conventional way. He is always outsmarting the system, making things better, more efficient, faster, etc. He continually surprises me in that way, and I love it.

When we go out to eat at restaurants, I always get the same thing. It's comfortable for me, and I know I'm going to like it, so why not? Kenny always gets something different and will try anything you ask him to. The other day I surprised him by snatching a piece of breaded shrimp right off his plate and popping it in my mouth. I knew he would be delighted, and he was. He couldn't believe it. I told him it was because he wasn't pressuring me to do it :). Just for the record, I liked it. he told me to think of it like a fish stick, so I did and it wasn't so bad. A few years ago when I tried shrimp, I almost gagged on it. I'm not a fan of seafood. But now I'm getting sidetracked.

Cooking with him occasionally drives me crazy. I am a devoted recipe-follower. Very rarely do I waiver. Lately I have gotten more comfortable with leaving things out, or adding something else, or tweaking the recipe ever so slightly. But only because Kenny's habits are rubbing off on me. For example, he adds syrup to hamburger meat, rinses noodles off with hot water, puts giant slobs of cookie dough on the cookie sheet (apparently normal sized cookies are boring), and thinks peanut butter goes with anything and everything! He NEVER uses recipes. He is much more content with making things up as he goes. He just opens up our fridge, freezer, and/or pantry and starts throwing things together. And as much as this hurts my pride to say it, it almost always tastes good. It used to bother me so much, though. I would deny his offers to help in the kitchen because he never did things the right way. And when he did insist on making a meal, he would kick me out of the kitchen--or I would kick myself out--so that I wouldn't care how he was making his concoctions. Anytime he would help with dinner, or even make dinner himself, he would wait until I had already taken a bite and tasted it. Then he'd say, "do you like it? Notice anything different about it?" He got so much pleasure out of me not knowing what he did differently to the food, and that I even liked it!

Now I have not only accepted it, but it's become something I love about him. His creativity and originality in everything he does makes life so much more interesting. I now feel bad for him, that he has to put up with my boring, unchanging ways. I didn't, in fact, realize how truly boring I must be until I was writing this. hmm... Point is, I like that we are different enough to keep things interesting.