Conforming
Adjusted Perception
My toothpaste ran out. This wasn’t a problem. There was another tube waiting and ready to take over. It was a different brand and a gel instead of a paste. But I’d switched between brands before and knew I’d get used to it.
I mentioned the change to my wife and referred to both my old and new tubes of toothpaste as small tubes. She interpreted that to mean I was using up a travel size tube that should, rightly, be reserved for traveling. Not daily use. She immediately got me a new box with a new tube in it.
When I opened the box, the newest tube was exactly the same size as the tube that ran out. The same size as the new gel I’d just started to use. The size I thought of as small because I’m built on old memories of what used to be a full-sized tube of toothpaste. Something you could use to brush three times a day for a month and still have plenty left.
I showed my wife the two tubes. New gel and the one she just gave me. This resulted in a rejection and subsequent discarding of the one-off gel. It was an interloper of suspect origin. Things had been set to right. Once again, I was using the correct toothpaste.
The only adjustment I made was to realign my perception of calling a half-sized tube a large tube. This I did for a simple reason. “Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.” (Hint: 1984 by George Orwell)
Which begs the question, what size toothpaste am I using?