Vegan MoFo: The Great Divide

People who know my husband and I often describe us as being the same person save our genders. We agree on almost everything and when we do have an argument it's usually because one of us didn't understand that the other one was saying the same thing. Sure, we also have dumb couple fights like every other couple in the universe, bouts of relationship bad weather -- that's normal! But overall, I count my blessings every day that I found my soul mate and we get to share a life and family together.

We are friends with a couple who are radically different from us in that they seem like total opposites and yet their relationship is happy and working. He's a liberal Democrat from a WASP-y New England background: She's a hardcore Ayn Rand-ing Republican Jew from Long Island. He's Red Sox and she's Yankees. He's a very mild mannered person and she is a hotheaded kickboxer, actually and figuratively. Privately I've wondered how it works -- not in a judgmental way but in a truly mystified way -- but he's happier than I've ever seen him and they have adorable children. I get the temperament thing, but the Republican thing?

And thinking about this made me remember the one massive difference between Trey and I, an issue almost as polarizing as the clash between liberal and Republican:

Trey loathes mayonnaise and thus, Vegenaise.

I will eat it with a spoon. I adore Vegenaise. We have had at one time 4 jars of Vegenaise in the fridge.

So when I make chickpea salad, I will sometimes split the mashed chickpeas between two containers, and dress one with oil and mustard and vinegar and curry powder and cumin, and that is for Trey. And the OTHER one gets 3 tablespoons of Vegenaise and mustard and pickles and celery and parsely and eaten right out of the bowl.

I have learned to simply accept the fact that Vegenaise tastes like slimy hell to my beloved, and to respect it. Also this means I get to eat all of it. If this is the only gulf between us, I am lucky indeed.