PASSIONATE RATIONS

A good marriage regularly displays the art of compromise.

My grandma (let’s call her Grammy B, which undoubtedly will inspire a rap song in a future post) and my spouse’s grandma (let’s call her Grandma L) are both tenacious bakers.  It’s magic really—every ingredient they touch turns to mouth-watering goodness.

As you can imagine, this situation spawned some serious arguments, especially around the holidays:

“My grandma’s desserts are better than your grandma’s.”

“Nuh uh.  My grandma’s desserts are way better than anybody else’s, including your grandma’s.  You want to take this outside?”

To save our marriage, we initiated peace talks.  After much discussion and gorging on desserts, resolution was found by focusing on the particular expertise of the grandmothers in question.  Grammy B, while she bakes cookies, generally has more cakes and pies on hand.  Grandma L, by contrast, is known far and wide for her cookies.  Once we pinpointed those specifics and were each able to acknowledge the particular expertise of the other’s grandmother, things became much more harmonious (and delicious):

“You’re right, honey, your grandmother makes terrific Cowboy Cookies.”

“And you can’t beat your grandma’s pineapple pie.  Another slice?”