discovered from talia’s amazing blog, who discovered this quote at salon.com.

“I am a person in a human relationship, and I can say that when a person starts doing things I don’t like, at first I try to stop her. I can think up many reasons why my way is best. But what I find over and over is that when I am thinking of all the reasons my way is best, I am not seeing the person in front of me. I am seeing my reasons.

I love my reasons. I love my solutions. But here is a person before me that I love, and I am not seeing her. I am seeing the sponges in the sink and how they are not clean. Then I am in a relationship with the sponges. I am using the sponges against her, blaming her for the condition of the sponges. What an absurd position! So I think to myself, what if I were to die right there, standing at the sink insisting that the sponges be properly maintained? What if the world’s greatest philosophers were to look down and see me focused intently on the sponges while my life passes by? What if this little moment in time, never to be repeated, is all you get? What if this is it? I have wasted it. I have wasted this moment obsessing on the sponges, how they are gummy in the sink, how there is gunk in the strainer and on the sponges, little bits of butter, a flake of oatmeal. I die complaining about a flake of oatmeal.

Meanwhile, here is this beautiful woman before me, radiant and strange, mysterious and funny, limitlessly interesting; I am choosing to complain to her about the condition of the sponges, how they must be properly maintained for kitchen sanitation, and I am a fool. I am focused on the sponges. It is some kind of terrible joke.”