Secret for a Happy Marriage

Brian and I will hit our 20th anniversary next year. I am going to give you one of the secrets to our happy marriage. Not the biggest secret, or the flashiest, but an important one, none the less.

Multiple Clocks

"How can having multiple clocks lead to 20 years of wedded bliss?" is what you are currently asking yourself. I'll try to explain.

Brian and my view on telling time is very different. Fundamentally different. I grew up in a house that was stuffed with clocks. My parents collect them. Friends from my childhood could tell you stories of my ticking house. There were clocks everywhere, each wall usually had at least one, if not five. The coo coo clocks and the Grandfather clock were the loudest, but they all ticked and chimed. (I could never get away with making prank calls to my friends, even before the age of caller ID). I like clocks that tick, clocks that chime, and clocks with hands.

My husband likes digital clocks. Now you are wondering how this constitutes a fundamentally different view on telling time. Well, here it is: Brian likes to know what time it is. Period. He will ask someone what time it is and what they tell him is good enough. He can look at the numbers on a digital clock and they give him all the information he needs.

I need more. I also need to know what time it isn't. I need to know within the framework of a clocks face, where my point in time lives. I don't need to know exactly what time it is so much as I just need to know where in time it is.

If someone tells me that it is 10:07am, my brain draws it's own clock so that I can envision that I'm mostly through the morning, but still a good bit of time away from Noon. I'm at the top of the hour, the hand not sitting stoutly on a thick line, but has just passed it and is lounging between the :05 and the :10 lines. I like the movements of a pendulum or a second hand, I like to see time as it passes. A digital clock going from 10:07 to 10:08 is so abrupt, almost jarring. I think I would have been good with sun dials and sand-filled hour glasses.

So, here is our secret. In the dining room there is a baker's rack where our microwave lives. It also has on it a digital clock, good for telling time while in the dining room. Sitting right next to it, is another clock, one with hands.

In our living room, we have a big unit around our TV. The shelf on top of the TV is also a good place to have a clock, or two:

(I'm guessing you are figuring out our secret.) 

In our bathroom there wasn't a whole lot of room. So this is just outside the door:

And this is inside the bathroom:

And although the clock on the stove and the coffee pot both work:

I also have this prominently situated so I can see it from where ever I'm standing in the kitchen:

I do miss not having a second hand on this one though...

There you go. That's our secret. "His and Hers" isn't just for towels. It makes a lot of sense in multiple areas of relationships. From our vehicles, choice of cheese, types of shampoo, and I've even heard of bank accounts - sometimes it is better to have a "his and hers". I'm all for compromising, overlooking the quirks of the one you love, sacrifice if need be - but if you can... why not just buy another clock?