It is said that Ernest Hemingway once won a ten dollar bet by writing a six word story. This is the kind of challenge I cannot resist, much like a black and white jigsaw puzzle. Maybe you will want to try your hand at this before taking a look at my submission. After all, Shakespeare once said “Brevity is the soul of wit”. How much meaning can you pack into few words? Anyway, here is Hemingway’s (arguably) best story:
“For sale: baby shoes, never used.”
After wrestling with this for awhile I came up, well, long. Long on words and short of creativity, that is. Not to be deterred, I set about trekking through the ‘net to see what other mere mortals might have to offer as their six word story. Many have tried their hand at it but few succeeded, in my opinion. I am certainly in the many category.
Well, maybe I did come up with something . . . but if you have something better, please forward it to me. Whatcha think?:
“an unloved woman who is married”
OK, for all you Bible scholars out there- I stole it. The whole passage goes like this:
Proverbs 30:21-24 (New International Version)
21 “Under three things the earth trembles,
under four it cannot bear up:22 a servant who becomes king,
a fool who is full of food,23 an unloved woman who is married,
and a maidservant who displaces her mistress.
My question for you today is simply this; does your woman feel unloved in any way? The consequences of allowing her to continue in this state are earth-shattering, according to the Bible. No matter how you answered, your answer is most certainly founded upon what you believe her feelings are and probably not how secure she honestly is about your love for her.
So now I issue a challenge: not for your six word story, but a challenge for you to ask one of the thorniest questions you may ever attempt. Ready for it? First make this statement: ” Honey, I value our relationship as my most treasured possession and I will do everything in my power to make it fulfilling for you, too.” Then ask her; “Is there anything I do to cause you to ever feel unloved?”
A word of warning here. It would probably be best to set this up by getting her in a very comfortable setting. Whether it is her favorite restaurant or going for a long walk, whatever - put yourselves into a place where you have noticed that she feels most free to open up to you. And don’t blow this by preannouncing “I have something I want to talk to you about later”. You will just inject fear or uncertainty needlessly, and this is about getting to her true feelings.
Be prepared that she may not take you seriously, or not want to hurt your feelings by telling the whole truth to you. This is to be expected and is fine. If she won’t take you seriously, I’ll bet you have a habit of trivializing her feelings or just plain ignoring them. She has just told you, backdoor, how you make her feel unloved- you don’t consider her feelings to be important. Tell her you recognize how you have done this to her and ask for specific examples to aid in burning this into your simple male brain.
Perhaps she is afraid to hurt your feelings. Well, our egos are fragile when it comes to criticism from the person we love and admire most. But your commitment to her is far greater than a little ding to your pride; isn’t it? Man up, my friend and give her full permission to wound your pride. It could be that she might want you to give her some time to collect her thoughts. In that case, set up another date like this in the next couple of days. In the meantime, continue being your usual charming and considerate self.
One more thing before I go- ask her for only ONE thing that causes her to feel unloved. This gives you some time to work on that issue so that next time you ask THE QUESTION, she will be ready for you.
Stumble It!