a short lesson in perspective

My husband broke our coffee carafe.

It's not a big deal. We can buy a new one. It's kind of amazing this one survived so long-- ten years and a few months, to be exact, which I know because the coffee maker was a wedding present.

But we haven't made it to the store yet. And in the meantime, I got a real life lesson in point of view.

When the carafe is broken, my instinct is to make coffee a different way. Namely, our press pot. This makes sense to me.

Other people would make daily runs to Starbucks. Or the locally owned coffee shop that's a lot cooler. They'd drink tea. Or Red Bull. Or instant coffee (gag). Maybe they'd buy a whole new coffee maker, or give up coffee entirely.

You may have guessed that my husband did none of these things. He did this.

My reaction went like this:

1) "Oh my god, what is wrong with him?"

2) "That looks terrible."

3) "I can only imagine what [my mom/grandmother/mother-in-law/the other moms at my kids' school/the BFF/the male BFF/any number of other folks] would think."

4) "The coffee he made this morning tasted fine."

5) "He didn't even make a mess."

6) "Oh right. This is why I love him."

Because it really doesn't matter. He temporarily solved the problem in a manner I find odd. His thought process isn't the same as mine. But the end result was better than mine-- press pot coffee has grinds in the bottom-- and who cares what any number of people would think (especially considering they'd all think different things anyway?). That's why I love him. He makes me see things in a different way.

And that's kind of important. Especially as a writer.

How would your characters fix a coffee pot?