January « 2010 « Happiness in this World

Attack Every Problem Like A Lion Traps An Ant

Posted by Alex Lickerman

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Lately, my wife and I have been having trouble with our water heater. Over the last few months we’ve been finding the blower blowing but no gas running along with it to actually heat our water. Recently, the gas would turn on for only 10 minutes before shutting off, leaving the blower going, sometimes all night while we slept.

You don’t fully appreciate what you have until you’re threatened with losing it, especially hot water. So my wife leapt into action. Continue reading…

How I Met And Married My Wife

Posted by Alex Lickerman

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I am the eldest of four boys. In 2002, my second-youngest brother and his wife announced they were going to have a baby. The news absolutely floored me. This would be the first baby of our generation and represented a significant life change for us all.

I left their apartment that night thinking about life stages and transitions and found myself wondering why I wasn’t married yet. I’d always felt I’d wanted to be and had certainly had a number of opportunities. But I’d passed them all up for one reason or another and at 34 remained single.

Learning one of my brothers was going to be a father triggered something in me—a sense of urgency, a greater interest in moving my life forward, a need to shake things up—I’m not sure what. But the next morning I began a campaign to find my wife. Continue reading…

Preparation Prevents Piss-Poor Performance

Posted by Alex Lickerman

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One day, about a year and a half ago, my wife and I were walking along a street near our home when she grabbed my arm and suddenly exclaimed, “I think that woman is in trouble!”

I followed her gaze to a car stopped at a light and saw to my horror a woman being prevented from exiting the passenger side door by the man who was driving. He held her hair clumped in his hand. She was screaming and crying and trying to free herself to no avail. Continue reading…

Why We Lie

Posted by Alex Lickerman

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Several months ago, my wife and I began toilet training our son, Cruise (the Montessori method is to train toddlers to use the toilet as early as possible). We’d diligently put him on a small potty in his bathroom as often as we could drag ourselves into doing it and repeat over and over to him, “Pee pee on the potty, Cruise. Pee pee on the potty.” In order to get him to remain sitting on it so that he might actually pee into it, we’d read books to him, which he loves more than almost anything.

Like many toddlers, when his bedtime arrives, he often prefers to stay up playing with his parents. One night as we were laying him down in his crib, he surprised us by grabbing his diaper with his hand and exclaiming, “Pee pee on potty. Pee pee on potty” in a plaintive, expectant voice. But we knew he didn’t need to pee as we’d just taken a freshly wet diaper off him. Continue reading…