Common ground

So the Christians and the Pagans sat together at the table
Finding faith and common ground the best that they were able
Dar Williams
The Christians and the Pagans

I had been meaning to post this for more than a week now, but I've been a little out of touch with the blog.

I had an interesting lunch with my boss, the owner of the company. The discussion was supposed to be about direction, goals, etc. over the long term. That part of the conversation was suprisingly short, mainly because there was nothing new to discuss there (another story I'll tell sometime).

So, having known each other for 13 years now, we starting talking about co-workers, former employees, etc. "How's so-an-so doing?" and similar stuff. We got onto the subject of marriage, and that was where the surprise was.

He and I are about as different as people can be. He is a die-hard Republican who hunts, plays sports very competively, etc. So it was unexpected when I found so much in common with him. We were both surprised recently by several unexpected divorces of friends and co-workers. We started talking about that, and about what keeps two people together or pushes them apart.

It turns out that we had both gone through several of the same challanges in marriages. The same stressful times triggered by similar events or at similar milestones. The same decisions, rationales, realizations, etc.

Anyway, It was just a reminder that there's always common ground there somewhere.