My husband, fed up with my toothpaste habits, has gone independent. No longer does our little cat coffee mug hold both of our electric toothbrushes and a tube of paste. Instead, my own toothbrush and a balled up, oddly disjointed, tube sit in disharmony together. Josh recently stashed his own brush and a fresh tube of toothpaste in a top shelf next to his contact lenses and gel. What began with a simple comment about my lousy toothpaste squeezing led to Josh simply avoiding the conflict altogether and going solo. Oh sure, he tried demonstrating to me how he carefully squeezes from the bottom in order to push the maximum amount of paste out and onto his brush. “See, when you push from the bottom you never have to squeeze multiple times in the middle to get it out…the paste just travels up to the top instead of being pushed back down.” I took the paste and immediately dented it in the center, pleased with the quantity that came out. “No, no, no!” Josh cried in dismay; his perfect toothpaste set up destroyed by a single swipe of my thumb. 5 years ago, he would have suffered my toothpaste disrespect in silence. 9 years ago he would have never brought it up. These days, however, Josh is taking action. Why put up with a sloppy spouse when you don’t have to? Better to hide a tube of toothpaste from me altogether and never have to worry about it. I admire this strike of independence because I would rather have it resolved…and it means I can push the toothpaste however I want.