Comfort Zone

Understood Assignments.

Like in a classroom. You pick a spot on Day One and from then on that's Your Seat. Everybody knows it. No one questions it. No one would dare sit in it. It's understood.

An Understood Assignment.

Jim and I have been married for almost 30 years and in that time we've moved to a few different houses. Okay, quite a few. But no matter how many houses we've lived in, no matter how the bedroom is arranged, I always sleep on the left. Always. It's just understood.

One time recently we were staying in a hotel and I didn't sleep well at all. The reason occurred to me the next day. I'd slept on the wrong side of the bed!

Maybe that's where the saying "got up on the wrong side of the bed" comes from.

Hmmmm. Something to ponder.

If you are lucky enough to have 2 sinks in your bathroom, no doubt you use the same one. Every time. You probably couldn't even brush your teeth over the Other One. If someone is at Your Sink, you reluctantly move to the other one realizing immediately you should have waited on Your Sink to free up.

And furthermore, wonder why anyone would consider using Your Sink. It IS an Understood Assignment after all. Hello? What is wrong with you?

I'll bet your dinner table is the same. Every time you sit down to eat (assuming you do sit down at the dinner table to eat), you always sit in the same spot. Even if you eat alone, I'll bet you sit in that same chair every time. And for all of us who eat on the sofa or in the living room chairs, where you're supposed to eat, I'll bet you sit in the same place. Every time.

It's an understood assignment. Nobody questions it.

Now, for the record, we do not have this next piece of furniture.

For those of you who DO have a Papa Bear chair in your living room, Papa Bear usually sits in it. If company comes over and moves toward that chair and hesitates knowing full well it's the Papa Bear's chair, you say something like . . . Please, have a seat. Your company says . . . Oh no, I don't want to sit in Papa Bear's chair. You say, sheepishly . . . It's not - please sit down. So they reluctantly do. Of course we're all out of our comfort zone now. Everyone knows that's an Understood Assignment. Someone is in Papa Bear's chair.

Yeah, we're all comfortable with that Assigned Seating. Until company comes :-/

If you have 2 cars in your garage, there's no doubt in my mind that you park in the same place every time. If you come home and whomever shares your garage is on Your Side, you wonder immediately . . . Why are they parked on My Side? Now I've got to park on Their Side. They're in My Understood Assigned Place.

You go inside and ask . . . Why are you parked in my place? And you get this answer like your garage-sharer is unaware of the understood assignment. Oh, I didn't know we had assigned parking spaces.

Now you do.

In our Flemish class, the front row has only 3 seats. There were three people in one family who always sat on the front row. For weeks they'd sat there. Always.

One day we got two new people in our class and they sat on the front row. Jim and I looked at each other like "Oh no. Those seats belong to that family of 3". Then the family of 3 walked in.

The two new people had no idea what they'd done. But the rest of the class did. The family of 3 looked at their former seats and were relegated to the back row. The two new people have sat there ever since. Never knowing they took "an understood assignment".

I felt badly. For all of them. I still do! That is just ridiculous.

Never underestimate your comfort zone. And that it may even extend to the comfort zone of others :~|