It is rarely enough for me to know that a thing exists. I can't help but wonder how it came to be. I always need to know why. And if I can't find the answer easily, I make up my own, until I get the whole picture. Nothing is more important to me than discerning motive. It is often the difference between me getting so mad that I write a person off forever, and forgiving them because their reasons for action were sufficient, even if I didn't agree with them. Even when I hear someone is acting unconscionably, I always want to know why he or she behaved badly before I assume the worst. I have a hard time believing that miscreants are simply that, for no reason. It makes it doubly hard for me to understand how a person can defraud another. Where does a human's mind have to be to commit identity theft, for example, or even simple robbery? What makes anyone think they can just make off with things that don't belong to them? For me, if I can't figure out the why, I can't believe that it is possible to do these things. Perhaps it is naive.
Once I am fascinated by a topic, I have trouble understanding when others are not so enchanted by it as I. There are several things that have really gotten a hook in me, and I just can't get enough on those subjects. I read books, follow on Facebook, tune in on Livestream, and bring up websites so often that typing the first letter brings up exactly what I want in predictive text. My man has been accusing me of sounding like a newly converted religious freak on one or two of these things, and it is so frustrating to me that he is particularly incurious even to look at those things about which I am so passionate. I've gotten him to eat like I do, for example, merely because I do all of the shopping and cooking, but he will not read word one on the topic. He does not want to know. I have begged, cajoled, and gotten angry. Nothing makes him budge. I would want to know why someone is making such a big change, why they believe in it so strongly as to throw away everything in the kitchen and stop going to restaurants in a foodie's paradise. Him, he just gets irritated when I mention it. I tell myself to give up, but I just can't. I'm caught in a feedback loop -- why wouldn't you want to know why?
Last winter, after the exercise in chaos that was our roof rebuild, I was guilty of a little incuriosity myself. It took weeks for the contractor to return to fix the gaping hole they left in the corner gutter piece between the porch and the garage. I called and called, and he finally showed up one day while I was out of the house. I was so tired of fighting that battle, I saw it was done and stopped thinking about it. I didn't investigate the quality of the repair, and that was my mistake. I did notice on one occasion that there was excessive water running down the fascia boards over the porch, but other than posting pictures on the blog, again, I put it from my mind. Ahead of imminent rain, the man investigated the gutters today. Much as I don't understand intentional fraud, I don't get why someone would do such a half-assed job as those contractors did, and be able to live with themselves. They had broken the corner piece for the gutter, and rather than replace it, they squeezed out about a half a pound of caulk, and called it good. The gutters themselves were installed so badly, the man has been griping about it all day. Mounted in the wrong place, with fewer fasteners, and the wrong pitch. I really should have looked sooner.
A word about today's photos: today was the first day we went for a walk with all three dogs. Well, Bump went for a walk, Murray went for a roll, and Elsa took me for a drag. It seemed to go well enough that it will be repeated. All the neighbors are going to know us on sight soon enough.
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