WEATHER: Time To Have The Husband’s Hearing Checked
Illustration: Audio Equipment (Image credit: Wix)
The weather is hot enough to turn on the air conditioning and to stay out of the sun. After a relatively cool August, the heat arrived as a heat low to our southeast built northwestward into our area. The heat should last into late week before temperatures trend downwards into Shabbat (Saturday). By that time a trough (or low pressure) in the middle atmosphere should move in from the northwest, and the low to our east should be replaced by a weak ridge of higher pressure. The winds between that low and the higher pressure will bring moisture into northern central and northern Israel, where there will be the possibility of tropical showers (and even some lightning).
Fall may be off to an early start (and the rumor has it that the seasonal forecast models are predicting above normal rainfall amounts, a big difference from the years of predicting drought). As the trough continues eastward and passes through our area the temperatures should cool from the low 30s into the upper 20s. That's good because I don't want to hear any complaints about the weather. It wasn't exactly a complaint, but an odd thing happened to my wife. She was worried that her nighttime slumbers were being interrupted by a bit of snoring. I said I didn't think so, but she insisted on heading off to the doctor. She told the doctor her worries, so he asked her if this were indeed true. She told him that she was sleeping so that she couldn't verify the situation either way. He thought this strange, and didn't really know how to proceed.
This made for a bit of a laugh but then she added that she was sure that the doctor found it even stranger that she hadn't come to "complain" that her husband was snoring and being — generally — a bother. Afterwards, what struck me about her comment was an implied expectation that husbands are simply a bother to have around. But, I must digress. You may not believe this, but it's been verified through an unscientific poll. What's the first place a wife takes her husband after the marriage and the excitement of the first weeks of marriage have passed? She takes him to have his hearing checked. Some men will say amongst themselves that they've lost their hearing because of their wives, but at the time of the appointment wives are invariably told that their husband hears just fine. The wife goes home muttering, and the husband goes home happy that his hearing is indeed fine. Except it isn't. The problem isn't hearing; the problem is listening. She goes home wondering how her husband is ever going to be useful if he doesn't hear her instructions on how to be so. You see, men marry because in their eyes they've found a beautiful woman or a smart one, or a smart and beautiful woman, or a funny, smart, beautiful one — regardless of the reason, they've found the one. Women marry, instead, because they have high hopes that their husband might be useful to have around. True, there's a bit of starry-eyed bliss, but deep down it comes down to what is called tachlit (purpose). But what does she get? Someone whose hearing is going and they've only been married a few months. Then she's faced with a dilemma: she has to weigh just how much her husband is useful versus how much he's a bother, and if he doesn't come out on the plus side there's going to be trouble. Trouble usually comes, but if a husband is truly committed to honoring his wife (and marriage) he can follow some simple advice. If you miss it the first time, try to get it right the second time, and don't justify why you got it wrong the first time. It won't help because wives live in the here and now, and don't want to hear (rational) excuses why husbands didn't live up to expectations. If you do this, you can move back to the plus side and your wife might actually tell her mother that she made the right choice. Religious men sing to their wives every Friday evening: "An accomplished woman who can find? Far beyond pearls is her value." A little listening on the part of a husband can go along way to deserving such a wife. Shana Tova!
Image credit: The Jerusalem Herald
Dr. Lynn is a lecturer at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Earth Sciences Department. He is also CEO of Weather It Is, LTD, a company that specializes in reducing weather risk.
