War of Words

The wife and I have a habit of getting into intense debates. Early in our dating period, in one of our car rides, we had what started out as a very light hearted conversation about government taxation. It soon escalated into a war of words by the time we arrived at our destination. I advocated for the need to tax more, especially the rich, and she, argued for a flat tax system where the rich didn't have to give up more just because they made more. Suffice to say, our differing views on taxes almost made us break up. 

Another time, we got into a very explosive disagreement about religion, or more specifically, church. I've developed a healthy dose of distrust for the church as an institution and advocated for more grassroots, communal organization of spiritual communities. She, on the other hand, strongly insisted that the church as an institution has been there for centuries for good reason, and should not be abandoned. If I could describe the intensity of our "debate", the picture of Mohammad Ali v. Frazier in the Fight of the Century come to mind. Or Godzilla versus Mothra. 

I'm glad to say, we've put our political and religious differences aside when we tied the knot . But our penchant for intense debates has not stopped there. Our most recent one? On investing. We've become hobbyists in stock investments and the wife has gained quite the knowledge in trading. One day on yet another car ride, she started with the opening statement "MSFT is worth investing in because we can always trust that they will always be around as leaders in the industry." It was just begging me to lay a counter argument with a sprinkle of examples of big companies with invincible reputations that have faltered (i.e., Sears Roebuck, Nokia, and even RIM) over the years. She countered my counter with MSFT's strong portfolio of products, monopoly-like marketshare and promising acquisition of Skype. After a few rounds, we adhered to the Good Book when it said "don't let the sun go down while you are still angry" and kissed and made up. 

Yeah, we're weird.