In these days of political correctness I was surprised to hear an elderly lady insulting her husband quite openly in a hotel reception area. I had my back to the couple as I was helping myself to coffee from a free machine. "Four-eyes! You've got four-eyes." There was no response from the man. "Why have you got four eyes?" the lady continued. I turned round slowly, trying not to look as if I was double checking that her husband was wearing spectacles. He seemed completely oblivious to her insults and was sitting reading the paper as if she hadn't said a word. As there was slight tension and the lady at the reception desk also seemed to be trying to look busy, I decided to sit down with my coffee and the newspaper and make polite conversation. "I do like the Daily Mail quick crossword," I ventured, "It's the only one I can actually do straight away." Silence. "I fill the Times crossword in with random words so people think I'm clever but the words don't correlate to the clues." This admission was meant to lighten the mood but nothing changed. The lady sat down next to her husband as if she was the epitome of a good wife. One more attempt at diffusing the apparent awkwardness seemed appropriate,"I like the puzzle page in the "i" because it's in big print so I can see to do the codeword." That's when I realised no insults had been thrown. I looked at the paper rack. There were four "i" newspapers available for perusal and the lady was remarking on it to the receptionist because there's normally only one of each publication. In Proverbs chapter 6 verse 8 we read this, "Hear, for I will speak noble things, and from my lips will come what is right." Perhaps it's because I haven't quite mastered the art of living out the wisdom of Proverbs, that I attributed insults to a perfectly innocent woman. If she's reading this I apologise, and sometimes I will try to improve.
In these days of political correctness I was surprised to hear an elderly lady insulting her husband quite openly in a hotel reception area. I had my back to the couple as I was helping myself to coffee from a free machine. "Four-eyes! You've got four-eyes." There was no response from the man. "Why have you got four eyes?" the lady continued. I turned round slowly, trying not to look as if I was double checking that her husband was wearing spectacles. He seemed completely oblivious to her insults and was sitting reading the paper as if she hadn't said a word. As there was slight tension and the lady at the reception desk also seemed to be trying to look busy, I decided to sit down with my coffee and the newspaper and make polite conversation. "I do like the Daily Mail quick crossword," I ventured, "It's the only one I can actually do straight away." Silence. "I fill the Times crossword in with random words so people think I'm clever but the words don't correlate to the clues." This admission was meant to lighten the mood but nothing changed. The lady sat down next to her husband as if she was the epitome of a good wife. One more attempt at diffusing the apparent awkwardness seemed appropriate,"I like the puzzle page in the "i" because it's in big print so I can see to do the codeword." That's when I realised no insults had been thrown. I looked at the paper rack. There were four "i" newspapers available for perusal and the lady was remarking on it to the receptionist because there's normally only one of each publication. In Proverbs chapter 6 verse 8 we read this, "Hear, for I will speak noble things, and from my lips will come what is right." Perhaps it's because I haven't quite mastered the art of living out the wisdom of Proverbs, that I attributed insults to a perfectly innocent woman. If she's reading this I apologise, and sometimes I will try to improve.
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