The Turtle and the Skunk by Jo Cooper 1983

It has been said that most marriages consist of one turtle and one skunk. The turtle hides his head, the skunk spews forth.      There is no sex discrimination here. Either spouse can be the turtle or the skunk. For clarity, I'll use the pronouns of my choice.      The turtle not only hides his head, but usually his feelings and often himself. He is a non-social, non-people type person.      The skunk, on the other hand, spews forth verbally, loudly, possesively, dominatingly.      This sounds like a terrible combination, but actually, it's not. Turtles need skunks and vice versa. Two turtles together might bore themselve to death. Two skunks might kill each other.      Marriage has to be a give and take situation to work. Each person learns from the other. The turtle may never really snap out of it, but after awhile, he can learn to keep his head out long enough to voice an opinion.      The skunk may learn to retreat once in awhile and think before she speaks.      After a few years of love, understanding, and acceptance, you'll find that even these strange animals can make good bedfellows. (Now, that's not how that saying goes, is it?" ###

Adult 250 words

COMMENTS by Ralph Cooper, 10-19-07      Anyone who knew us, will recognize the true identity of the turtle and the skunk. Jo submitted this one to Woman's Day, Woman's World, and Mcalls. She received standard rejection slips from each of them. However, she never gave up, even though she was rebuffed.

 

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