Monday Musings

Blind Wife plus Deaf Husband

equals

Great Marriage

sign I saw on a local church marquis. What do you think? At first I was taken aback at the message I saw up there. usually I really like seeing what words of whitty wisdom they feel like sharing with passers-by. But this morning this particular message rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe because I have a deaf husband (or at least one who feigns a hearing impediment) and I wouldn't exactly say that this particular characteristic contributes to our 'great marriage'. And the message seemed to convey a sense of separateness and indifferance, even disdain:

Picture a wife. . .discontent with the husband who used to be built like an upright triangular athlete - broad robust in all the right places, thin and svelt in the right ones too. . . turning a blind eye to now upside down triangular less than prime fighting machine she used to know - now broad round the middle. Picture a husband who used to love the sound of her voice, now aggravated at the constant bickering and pestering. So one turns a blind eye, the other a deaf ear, and they find this helps keep them happy, even sane. Not a very uplifting message for a church marquis.

So then I tried to spin it positive (since surely their intent was to uplift and provide some humor at the same time, not instill that this-will-have-to-do tone I got from it all)

Now picture a wife who moves forward in life blind, holding to her faith, not knowing what comes next. Since she can't see the future she relies on her senses, specifically her sensitivity to the promptings of the Spirit. And picture a husband who, let's face it, doesn't always 'hear' those whisperings quite as often or well as the woman. With is 'deafness', perhaps he relies on the senses which work best still, reason, problem solving, those things that allow him to 'see' what the future might be, unlike his faith driven wife. Together, the blind and the deaf, work together, their seeming impairments actually blessing the life of the other, making their marriage great, and making themselves complete.

What do you think? What was your first impression of the message when you read it?