Relationships: Compatibility and Common Sense
This story reached us from Israel!
In her search of the "perfect relationship," one Israeli woman discovered something important about herself.
Hadas met Yaniv at a party. Something about him attracted her immediately and something about her attracted him too. He called her the next day and they went out, and Yaniv turned out to be the perfect boyfriend--he filled her house with flowers and whispered words of love.
But after a month of near-perfect bliss came the first fight. It all began with a minor disagreement about a song Hadas loved that Yaniv couldn't stand, and continued with both of them ranted on and on about the things they disagreed about. Hadas was shocked that the same wonderful guy she loved could be so rude and could ridicule what's important to her.
Hadas loves classical music but to Yaniv it's too conservative and violins drive him crazy. He won't let her play her music when they are together, and the idea of going to concerts together is out of the question. Hadas can't understand how an intelligent and educated person could listen to Mediterranean music. And how can the man she loves have such terrible table manners--especially when they go out to eat!
All of a sudden, the "perfect" relationship was full of disagreements. And it kept getting worse.
Hadas was torn. On the one hand, Yaniv's amazing qualities and potential, on the other, his rejection of her interests and refusal to accept her as she is. With the arguments more frequent and the bouquets more rare, Hadas called her close friend Noam to cry about her disappointment in love and the gross injustice of life.
But if she expected him to agree with her plight she was surprised. "Hadas," said Noam carefully "I have only one question and tell me the truth. How would you really want Yaniv to treat you?" Hadas answered, "I would like him to respect my love of classical music and foreign movies. I want him stop complaining about my talking to my mother twice a day, and I want him to accept that I like to go to sleep at 10 at night. I want to be able to listen to classical music in my own home without him turning up his nose. And it would be nice if he'd come with me to the new Japanese movie or at least not drive me crazy if I go out to see it with a friend instead. I would like him to get home early enough to spend some time with me before I go to sleep. And I don't want him to be jealous about my spending time with you and other friends."