Story Time Around the World

“Great Mirth” was the subject line in one email that arrived in my inbox yesterday. It’s from Rachel, with whom I’ve been discussing weighty matters like how to have church. In hopes of doing my mirth-spreading bit today, I asked for permission to post the email here.

Quote:
“I am sitting here laughing out loud about your skunk story - unbelievable!!!
I've been talking to my Family Counseling class about couples becoming soul mates: developing spiritual intimacy with one another. I never thought about how uniting in an effort to put a skunk out of the house could accomplish this, but when necessity calls, a united front is most sure proof, and makes a great story!

One would not typically think of prayer and the evicting of skunks going together. What really cracked me up is the image of Miriam and Hiromi holding hands together at 4:15+ in the morning, praying to be able to remove this skunk out of their house. I think I shall use this story in my classes to illustrate unusual and humorous ways of bonding at most unexpected times within a marriage, telling them, "Never overlook the opportunity to work together. It may be one of many stories in your repertory which you will be able to retell of how interestingly and unexpectedly your spiritual intimacy was built over time."

Thanks for the laugh and the great illustration to use!”

Thanks to Rachel for a chance to see a positive so quickly in what was not a welcome development at the time. “Developing spiritual intimacy” has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? I had no idea that’s what we were doing at 4:15 A.M. yesterday--in our dining room, me in my nightgown and chicken hair (I escaped with only the clothes on my back, after all.) and Hiromi in his boots and other clothes.

I echo the idea, though, that working together IS a wonderful way to build intimacy. Hiromi has always been amazed when I’ve wished to join him on a task, just so we can work together, but I know that Rachel is on target on this one. Rachel and I get it, even if Hiromi doesn't. I hope the couples in that former Soviet-bloc country class believe her–about the skunk and the intimacy.

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In the middle of the episode, Hiromi's "I'm going to get my boots" comment was the one that cracked me up--like a three-year-old with new cowboy boots who feels powerful and prepared whenever he's wearing them. I think what Hiromi was really thinking is that, with a skunk under the bed, how can you even safely get off the bed? Dangling bare appendages in front of a skunk does not seem like a wise move. But, of course, he did just that, leaving the bedroom in his slippers, on his way to his boots, with a stop in the dining room!!!!! for his shirt and pants, where he had fortuitously left them. I, on the other hand, pondered the "dangling appendages" imagery and stayed in bed till I heard and saw the skunk penned for the moment behind the wicker shelf unit.

Hiromi is a champion of the unpreceded and unexplained comment--and decisive action. Those characteristics are endearing and annoying by turns. It's fun though, when it really doesn't matter if I understand the context of a comment or not. Those are the times I can put on it any spin I want. Big imagination to the rescue. . . I didn't know about the clothes on the dining room chair, and was already picturing Hiromi doing skunk eviction battles in his boots and undies, in the spirit of a three-year-old Mighty Man of Valor.

The big-imagination forays did not comfort me when I looked around at all the books in our bedroom, and thought of all the clothes in that room, the mattress, the bedding and curtains around the bed and at the window--How would you ever get skunk spray smell out of all that? But, of course, I didn't dwell on that thought for long. Duty called, so I reported for duty--as soon as I was assured that my feet could safely make it into my Birkenstocks and out the door without a skunk attacking them. I didn't even remember to grab my bathrobe when I walked by it. By then, Hiromi was already almost out the front door, fully dressed.

Marriage Lesson #2: Men and women approach their challenges differently, but when each one contributes responsibly, with a generous spirit, the important bases are likely to get covered.