Thread: Here's to the Dearly Beloved

Gentlemen:

Oscar Levant was asked what made a successful piano virtuoso. "Five essential things are required," he said. "Talent, imagination, energy, determination — and a very rich wife."

I thought of that when this morning the dearly beloved pointed to my Schwarzweisskeramik scuttle and said, "Is this new? What happened to the other one?"

"You mean my Moss scuttle and Ayars lather bowl?" I said, pointing to them in my stash closet shelf. "I use them for my smaller brushes."

She nodded with a patient smile and shuffled away. On another occasion she pointed to the racks lined with straight and double edge razors and said, "They grow like rabbits."

Not that the dearly beloved is rich with money. No, the dearly beloved is rich with an angel's patience — for putting up with my shaving passions and idiosyncrasies.

Tell me, gentlemen, how does your dearly beloved handle your shaving passions and idiosyncrasies?

Mine knows it means something special to me. She knows not why. She has been seen rolling the eyes on occasion. I have actually heard her defend my obsession to others. Perhaps to prevent being known as married to a nut? I show her all my creations and acquisitions and she wants to hold and look, making ne nervous as hell! I feel she knows I have retired from many hobbies and obsessions in sacrifice to family and even old age.
She does not seem to mind. Good ol gal! A keeper

She rolls her eyes as she sighs as she shakes her head and then moves on.

Obie & Sharptonn. You both chose WELL! I'm fortunate to have a similarly gracious partner that sees the passion I throw at this hobby/obsession as vital to my well being - which she defends. I really can't say how big a thing that is. 'Makes me very glad for each of you, that you have a partner that understands how your passion(s) is/are central to your well being. If any attribute of a partner is worth praising, this orientation most certainly is. 'Makes all the normal partnership speedbumps pale in significance, and makes me strong in desire to do right by her.

Mine is a special one indeed. I had a particularly bad day at work and life in general and needed someone to remind me of my worth. She was letting me know that I was good at things and that whatever I did I jumped into head first and did my very best at. She used my leap into shaving with a straight razor as a prime example of my success. It blew me away that she admired me for my passion in something that I used to view as a chore. We are coming up on our first anniversary and I can't wait for what else she is going to put up with.

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Mine knows it means something special to me. She knows not why. She has been seen rolling the eyes on occasion.

Yup, sounds familiar lol...

My wife runs the gamut from casual acceptance to utter disbelief (you guys know what I mean - "Why do you need ANOTHER razor?", "Do you have to spend that much time on that shaving website?" ).

On the other hand she has been known to surprise me from time to time. The last time I bought a razor I waited a couple days before informing her, as I knew she'd intercept the package when it arrived. I thought she'd be mad, but she smiled and told me that she knew it would make me happy, and besides it was my money anyway. Wow.

Lucky Man? I tend to think so

my wife almost won't acknowledge it. not because she's upset about how much "stuff" I have or how much time I spend on it...

she's just worried I'm going to accidentally kill myself.

When I find one I'll tell ya...

The dearly beloved has made quite a 180 on my shaving habits. She was fine with a DE razor, although she definitely rolled her eyes at the amount of software I was experimenting with.

When I first broached the subject of a straight razor, she said "Absolutely not! You're going to cut your face off!"

So I put it on the back burner for a while. Then I brought it up again. "Fine. It's your money, you can get one, but you're still going to cut your face off."

After shaving with one for a while (the door always closed to protect her from the spraying blood ), she ended up sitting down at the edge of the tub and watched me shave (through slightly parted fingers when I got to the neck). She asked me a lot of questions, and walked away surprisingly comfortable with it. As my razor collection grew she actually started telling me that she thought they were pretty.

So, even though she still rolls her eyes (especially when I'm honing), she loves the results and supports the habit

I'm typically pretty hard to shop for, so mine seems grateful that there is a whole new world of stuff to buy me at gift giving time...

I will say I was very pleasantly surprised when she researched and bought me a soap I had never heard of before (Tabula Rasa - Dark Lavender) saying "you have all this Italian and English stuff...I wanted to find you a nice German one (she's from Germany)"...very sweet of her and it doesn't hurt that I really like the soap as well!