We found a show to watch. The twins and I are enjoying the sappy sweetness of the Dick Van Dyke Show. Last night we splurged on three episodes about Rob and Laura, having done all our chicken chores and a morning of Sewing Camp. Many times as the credits are rolling by Hope will sigh mostly to herself.
"They have a good
marriage."
It is as if watching the interactions of a couple who love and trust each other fills her imagination with nourishment she will take out later when her own marriage bumps up against jealousy, long work hours and crankiness.
There was one
show that did a clever job of depicting a triplet of scenarios- What Rob remembered happening,
what Laura remembered happening, and what actually happened.
I laughed not because it was outlandish but because it felt familiar. There are times I wish John and I could play the security tapes in our own living room, except that we have no cameras, and tease out the discrepancies between our recollections. It reminds me of those games I played in children's magazines where there are two sets of pictures and I had to find the
differences.
Here the clown has three buttons and over there he has four.
It is not that there are two wrong interpretations and one right one. If we go to a party and John has a mediocre time and I have a smashing good one, neither of us is mistaken. It is in listening to his experience that I get closer to understanding him. Maybe it is like those 3 D glasses that you wear in a movie theater. The depth perception comes from the
gap between two incomplete views. Or perhaps it is like having two feet, which makes walking hugely more satisfying.
I got curious about Dick and Mary, and their personal lives. It turns out Dick nearly became a minister. How about that. Maybe that is one reason I like him.
