Point of View

Our friend Del teaches acting workshops, and often he'll talk about how he coaches his actors to deliver lines with a point of view.  Recently I ran into a situation where a point of view changed the entire meaning of a phrase.

In a few days we're headed to Europe.  It's a post MBA celebration for us.  Detour: my husband isn't the only one in our marriage with an Ivy League graduate degree.  My husband presented me a "Masters in Understanding" from Wharton, which I thought was really sweet.

Although, my husband didn't make that big of deal about it, which makes me think he had one of his people procure this "diploma" for me, and he had very little to do with it.  His class coordinator is named Amy, she's a fellow homo and she loves us.  I had to ask my husband if Amy had this created for me?  He didn't answer.  So I have a new layer to our marriage: "Did my husband do this for me?  Or did one of his people?"

Back to the story: We're headed back to Georgia (the country, not the state) and then we'll spend 24 hours in Paris.  We have to catch multiple flights to get to Georgia.  I asked my husband what class are we flying, and my husband looked at me and said: "Your ass will not touch coach."

This line was delivered with a very specific point of view; my husband delivered this phrase: "Your ass will not touch coach" and his point of view implied: I know how you hate to fly coach, I know you'd rather not fly than fly in coach, I know you like to travel like a king...your so high maintenance.  (All true points.) 

However, that same phrase: "your ass will not touch coach" could have been delivered with the point of view that celebrated the billion frequent flier miles we cashed in, that celebrated our achievements, that rewarded me for the two years of having a husband gone every other weekend and all I have to show for it is a "masters in understanding" from Amy!