Thursday, August 28, 2008

Change is good.

I grew up in an Air Force family. Not only did we move a dozen times by the time I finished high school, my father was fond of moving the furniture around and from room to room at least every other week or so. Such constantly changing landscapes did two things: it made me not afraid of change and it created an everlasting itch to try something new.

All was well until I discovered that there are families who do NOT like change. The recliner stays in the same spot for 20 years and boxes of stuff no one opens stay in the garage and basement from one generation to the next. My discovery came shortly after the "I do" to T. Our childhoods, it turned out, were polar opposites. He grew up in a family so tied to the land that his childhood home was built on farm acreage later sold by his grandparents to pay for their nursing care. The living room layout I saw when I met his family was exactly as it had been forever.

For them, change is BAD. It's unnecessary and downright scary.

So I restrained myself. Hey, marriage is all about compromise. Then I gave birth to the king of "DON'T CHANGE A THING OR ELSE" and the queen of "So, Mom, how are we going to redecorate my room this year?" - right down gender lines. Ironic, isn't it?

Hoo, boy.

I still need to move things around. But I focus on our sunroom and rec room, where change isn't so scary for some reason. And I tweak a little here, add a little there without moving the major pieces. 

It hasn't scratched my itch. But at least it's made it a bit tolerable.

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