Too dumb to know better

by Louis
(New York, NY)

Alex is a friend who?s successful in his career but admits that his wife, Gloria is the real brains of the family. ?We were married when we were 19 and had two kids before we were 21,? he told me once.


I was shocked. ?You were just children yourselves. How could you raise kids of your own??


?It gets worse,? he said. ?We had no money, no car, no degree, no job. And no prospects. We lived in a one bedroom apartment that we shared with the cockroaches. The outlook for us was bleak.


?But Gloria saw things differently and it was her vision that became a reality. Just ten years into our marriage, I was Vice President of a major International Company. Gloria was working as a copy chief at an advertising agency. And we were living in Gloria?s dream house ? a house so big that we needed ?Two trees at Christmas Time.?


?How did you make that happen?? I asked
He reflected on the question for a moment.
?Well it took some skill, of course. And a whole boatload of luck. I finished college at night and that helped. But I think a major factor was Gloria and the way she made me think. You see, while I was worrying about the bills Gloria saw us working in wonderful jobs with all the money we needed. While I was resenting our crumby apartment, Gloria was picturing a beautiful house in the suburbs. While everything suggested that it was impossible to go from where we were to where she wanted us to be, she didn't seem to notice. All she saw was her vision of our world. And it?s that world that eventually came to be."


"?How did she know,? I wondered.
?I asked her that once. She said ?I wasn't aware that there was an alternative. I just assumed that it would happen. I guess I was too dumb to know better.??