It seems there is a general cultural consensus that solution-focused is the way to be. Tragically, I am not solution-focused. I am process-focused, which means that I prefer talking about my problems rather than fixing them. In fact, when I meet people who are all solutioney, I end up thinking they are fun-haters. The whole point of having problems is so you can talk about them and make jokes about them and bond with other people. Duh.
That said, there are a few problems I wouldn't mind solving, and most of them involve changing things that are arguably out of my sphere of influence, such as other peoples' behavior and laws of physics.
Today I have stumbled upon a solution.
Ryan is, at this very moment, chatting on the phone with a cousin. I have no idea what precipitated a conversation about the Emerald Isle, but I heard him say "I saw online that the largest zucchini in the world is in Ireland, and it made me want to go there."
One of my grievances with Ryan is that he is less keen to fritter away our savings on world travel than I. He seems to think that money will be worth more in a brokerage account than BUYING ME A TICKET TO TIBET. While I submit he has a point, my caged-bird syndrome persists. Today, by a simple act of eavesdropping, I have discovered that all I need to do to con my financial comrade into travel abroad is promise him Very Large Vegetables. Awesome. I hear that Madagascar has Radishes of Unusual Size. Right?
Perhaps I will devote more blog posts to being solution-focused and see what all the hype is about.
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5 comments:
Thanks for being my friend even though I am a fun hating meat eater.
Alex forgives me regularly for my lack of sympathy and offering of solutions when he just needs a ventee and some love.
Here is another possible solution: have Jill draw a picture of Ryan giving you your tickets to a far off place with large vegetables for Christmas.
Jen, I love fun hating meat eaters. In fact, I married one. Still, I will admit to occasionally trying to direct his helpful suggestions in less helpful directions i.e. "What would help most right now is for you to agree with me."
Your idea of utilizing Jill's skills is a good one. I will shoot her an email.
Don't bother, I am reading this. Enter my contest
i hear there are hugemongous vegetables all over the UK...unfortunately we don't have much money even in a brokerage account. but i'll help drop some fun world veggie facts to ryan so he will take you all over the world!
HAHAHAHA!
I have caged bird syndrome, too! and Adam is so obsessed with brokerage accounts, stocks, puts, and calls, etc.
To ensure we went on some kind of foreign vacation, I just started talking about our future trip to Brazil and/or Ecuador one day and then brought it up everyday with more and more detail of all the awesome things we will do there.
We don't have tickets yet...but we're getting close :)
You've got to "initiate and persist" with vacation plans, I have found.
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