Help Unspoken

The woman has had a hard day.  One of those days where Murphy’s Law is in full affect.  Now, after a work day she thought would never end, she just wants to get dinner done so she can sit down and unwind.  Unfortunately, her luck isn’t any better at home.  The pasta’s boiling over, and she can’t get the jar of sauce open to save her life. Getting dinner done by the time her husband walks in the door is something she prefers, so they can relax together and talk about their day.

He comes home and has no idea how her day went.  He only knows how his own has gone and it wasn’t the greatest.  Stopping on the threshold of the kitchen, he sees pots boiling over, timers going off and his wife standing with her back to him, crying and cursing the jar in her hands.

Three different men have stood in this very spot.

The first man doesn’t care how her day went, because there’s no way in hell it was any worse than his! He views this scene as an extension of his own bad luck, not hers and storms into the kitchen, going off at the mouth about how much he needed to come home to his sanctuary, and instead finds it in chaos! Why can’t she just give him one simple good thing in his day of horrible?  He puts himself right in the middle of everything, completely taking over. Opens the jar, dumps it in the pot, turns off the boiling pasta, jabs the timer button and looks at her to say, “Now, was that so damn hard?!” Before storming back out of the room.

The second man is worried, but not about her.  He’s worried about his own safety.  All he sees is a volatile situation that could possibly explode in his face, if he says or does the wrong thing.  He slowly enters the lion’s den and asks, “Hey, honey. You need any help?” To which, she either snaps “No!” or explodes, beginning with the jar she can’t open and escalates to the rest of her crappy day, while slamming around the kitchen.  He doesn’t really hear a word she says, he just wants to escape in one piece, so he quickly opens the jar and rambles off some apology, before running out of the room, throwing a “It smells great, hon, I just gotta do [insert lame excuse here] real quick…” over his shoulder.

The third man takes quick stock of the situation, recognizes that his wife is also having a bad day and waltzes into the kitchen.  Setting his stuff down on the counter, he comes up behind her. Placing his hands over hers, he helps her open the jar, moves the boiling pot to another burner before turning it and the timer off, then squeezes his wife into the kiss he places on her cheek.  “Love you.” Turning away, he grabs his things off the counter and leaves the room to go deal with his own mess before dinner.

The moral of the story:

• You shouldn’t have to ask permission to help the person you love.
• Never make their bad situation about you.
• Helping someone shouldn’t make them feel worse about themselves. A little help can go a lot further than just taking over and doing it yourself.

♥ And never pass up an opportunity to let someone know you love them.  It’s amazing what kind of positive difference that one little word can make!

p.s. Only one of these men has a chance of getting sex tonight. That’s food for thought, too. 😉