ME: Are we too affectionate?
DEB: (I get a Where is this coming from? look) You mean, like when we hold hands, walking together or at a restaurant? We’ve had people come over and say how sweet it is to see a couple being as demonstrative as we are! Is this a problem?
So I fill her in on an article posted on Medium by
:
ME: I saw the title and thought, “I’m missing something. People make fun of couples who sit side by side? What for?”
DEB: We’ve always sat side-by-side. Well, not always always, but mostly.
ME: When we sit together in church (or any place else with pews/benches/very close chairs) I have my arm around you.
DEB: Unless you’re on the wrong side of me.
ME: Valid point.
When we watch streaming TV at home, Deb sits on the left side of the couch, I sit in the middle next to her, my left arm around her shoulder. There have been times when we’ve been other places and I’ve had my right arm around her shoulder, and afterward I’ve experienced discomfort.
As “old age” problems go, this one is minor.
So far.
ME: Colleen, the author, uses a first date as an example of being too early in a relationship to be sitting side-by-side. And we sat across the table from each other on our first date, but that was because it was a table for two at a romantic restaurant.
DEB: We sat side-by-side on our second date. On my couch. While we watched Sister Act on my VCR.
ME: That we didn’t finish until, um, later.
I get a look.
DEB: Is this going into a Chat with Deb?
ME: Umm…
DEB: We got affectionate on our second date. We’ll leave it at that. And we did finish Sister Act.
ME: Yes, dear. Meanwhile, Colleen makes a point about seeing a couple in their 70s sitting side-by-side at a restaurant.
They aren’t simply sitting on the same side of the booth, they are sitting pressed against one another. They are laughing, sharing conversation, and nibbling at their food.
DEB: Okay, that’s us. Except we don’t nibble at our food, we share it. Or swap dishes.
ME: And it turned out the couple had been married for sixty years. So we’re almost halfway there!
In the comments of the side-sitting article,
referred to how he and his wife like to sit “bus fashion” — I like that term, Warren!
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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Photo credit: Cathy Mü on Unsplash
