We're Alike

Dave and I are a lot alike. We're both planners and detail people. Some might call us anal retentive (a psychiatric diagnosis.)

Neither of us alphabetizes the canned goods but we've both been known to triple wrap the garbage.

This morning we had to decide which one of us is going to set up a budget for a little project we're starting. Most people wouldn't bother with a budget. They'd just do it. But that's not us.

One of the reasons I loved "The Year of Living Biblically" book was because the writer got obsessed with following all the Old Testament rules.

I'm a rule follower but I couldn't have lived the year that he did.

For instance, anything around A.J. Jacob's apartment that had the potential to stir his libido got covered with a piece of tape. That included the woman in the geisha outfit on the box of Celestial Seasonings tea.

While we'd think of many of the things he did as silly, the ritual made him a better person. A non believer, he started praying three times a day to fulfill his obligation to live biblically and, after a few weeks, it changed him in some powerful ways.

Dave and I like the discipline of regularly doing the same (good) things - even though sometimes it's not easy. (Like working out on the rowing machine at the gym.)

The writer of "The Year of Living Biblically" has OCD (obsessive, compulsive disorder) and that helped him considerably in following the 600 plus Jewish laws for a year.

I don't know what's up with Dave and me.


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