Cup & Toothpaste Theory

When we were looking for house a few years ago one of our non-negotiables was this: our own bathroom. Blessed as it was, we not only got our own bathroom, but our own sinks. The Hubs was overjoyed (I was pretty jazzed, too) and we quickly became accustomed to our own space. But I set my foot down on one thing, I still wanted us to share some items, such as a cup and a tube of toothpaste. I acquiesced on pump hand soap because it was such a chore to move that between the two sinks (read:heavy sarcasm).

But the cup and toothpaste were my line in the sand.

When we were first dating, the Hubs would come to my family's house and in the course of time, needed to use the bathroom. At one point, he shared a little nugget of disgust with me about the main bathroom that all guests and family members used. He said he couldn't believe that we all used the same cup in the bathroom. It was just a baby blue-colored plastic cup that sat on the sink, to be washed every so often, but there as a way for a quick swig if needed. In one of my more mature reactions to this comment, I was appalled, and (over)reacted by saying that he thought my family was gross and that he was snob for even thinking it. It became affectionately called the "Blue Cup" incident.

With our new bathroom arrangements, I felt the need to share something small still. So, not only the cup, but the toothpaste became very important to me. He was fine with the cup now, mostly because we'd swapped spit for so many years, he'd figured he was generally safe. And although we had ironed out the age-old question of how to squeeze the tube, the sharing needed work. We would have small "discussions" on the placement of the toothpaste tube after its use, so that the other person would still have easy access to it.

The cup, the toothpaste; it was all very trivial, but for whatever reason, it meant a bit more to me. I wanted to share these things. I wanted to think of him as I put my toothpaste down. I knew that I was blessed to even have someone to share the cup (family germs, my love, family germs) and a tube of toothpaste with.

I recently was cleaning the bathroom (cup, too!) and realized that he had his own tube of toothpaste. While I was out of town a couple of weeks ago, he needed to use something (as I had made off with our shared tube), so he opened his own. Part of me wanted to quickly stash the newly open tube under the sink. Part of me giggled at the memory of the "Blue Cup" and my insistence on a shared tube. I'm sure the Hubs didn't give it a second thought, but as I finished my cleaning, I thought, "It's just that I want to share a cup and toothpaste with him...forever."

Dramatic?

Yes. But true.

As long as the Lord gives us days and nights together, I hope to share these things. Small and insignificant, silly or serious, mundane or life-altering, I want to share them all.


Happy 13th Anniversary, C. I love you.

Ps. The extra tube is under the sink now. Wanna share?