James" <jimtibensky_at_fastmail.fm> wrote: >> My spouse and I were once asked to teach a class called "Couples in Doubles" because we get along so well in ours. The source of our success is the fact each of us is an expert in our own sport and neither is an expert in the other's. [snip] For the class, however, my technique was to split all the couples and have them paddle with a stranger in their boats. The second session would be with their partners. Invariably people got along fine with perfect strangers and not so well with loved ones. The old saying that one should never teach a spouse how to drive is on target - intimacy gets in the way of cooperation some times. So the trick to getting along in a double is to treat the partner as if he or she were a total stranger with "please" and "thank you" and "may I" and "would you care to" and all that.>> Right on. A similar principle is at work between mariners at sea: very polite to each other on the radio, even when negotiating difficult rights of passage. A local exception: On a foggy night, Columbia River Bar Pilot, in response to a request from a Coast Guard cutter about a tricky passage in the shipping channel near here: "I want your vessel to kiss the beach." The Bar Pilot got his in a subsequent inquiry, which found for the CG and awarded damages to compensate for repairs to the cutter incurred when the two vessels sideswiped in the mist, with the Bar Pilot's vessel __outside the channel__ and literally squeezing the cutter into the adjacent shallows. (No one was seriously injured; the damages were in the neighborhood of a million bucks; the Bar Pilot in question is regarded by his peers as having too much attitude, 24/7.) -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Jun 13 2003 - 07:56:00 PDT
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