04.21.2003 - 10:28 a.m.

I�m sitting on the couch in my parents� family room, watching end credits scroll on their TV. My brother has just left the room. I�ve just finished attaching afghan squares numbers twenty and twenty-one of forty-two. My mom is sitting on the other end of the couch.

�So would you like to watch the second half of The Ten Commandments?� Mom asks, slightly dubious. My brothers have already voiced strong objections to the idea.

�Well, I just watched the second half of The Prince of Egypt with Ben, and that went fine, so it shouldn�t bother me to miss the first half of something else, too.�

Mom looks at me for a moment. �There wasn�t really an answer in all that.�

�Oh.� I shrug. �Well, I guess the answer is that yes, I�d like to watch more TV so I can finish my afghan.�

�It doesn�t matter what?� Mom asks, in that tone of not-quite-believing-me.

�Exactly. Go put it in.� I pull out another afghan square and start lining it up for a seam.

So now I�ve seen the second half of the Ten Commandments, too. See, what my mom really meant to ask, although she never quite spat it out, was �Do you mind if I watch the rest of my movie, because no one else in this house will give me a chance to finish it?�

My answer was �Not at all.�

I find that if people just say what they really mean, I�m a million times more likely to answer in kind.

-stonebridge

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