Reasonable

Vidalia laughed.

»Reasonable? All things are reasonable, depending on where you're standing.«

Frank shrugged. He knew it when he saw it. Beyond that, he couldn't say.

»Silence is overrated,« said Vidalia. »Speak up.«

Something is reasonable when you can understand some of the logic which caused that thing. Some things are reasonable although they may not seem that way because you happen to not understand or be aware of its logic and details.

Unfortunately, some things are unreasonable even though they might be labeled as reasonable. Just saying it is so does not make it so.

»All I want,« Frank said slowly, »is a reasonable relationship.«

Reasonableness is entirely relative. It depends upon the time, the person and the place. A friendly phone call may go down well at 3pm but not be so welcome at 3am. Snogging is definitely person-specific when it comes to judging reasonability. Picnics with Pimms may be wonderful things by the river bank but few librarians would thank you for settling down to one in the reference section. Life is full of far less clear-cut decisions. It's almost guaranteed that sometimes we'll get it completely wrong.

I tried to be reasonable. I listened to all his arguments before I threw him out of my apartment and got on with my life.