How is our life going to be different after we go through this?

“It gets translated as spirit or life force, but what it really means is wetness—sexual wetness.”

There’s a softening in the first few minutes—watching his joy makes me understand his humanity. I’ve entered his world. That’s a big deal.”

I was reminded of an actress friend who says that seeing her husband in plays rekindles her attraction to him. When other people look at him, she is

I’ve been the life of the party and I’ve been a drag, broke and loaded, clinically depressed and radiantly happy. Spread out over the years, I’m a harem.

Underreacting might be the best stance when confronted by too much or too little change. Whether we want people to stay the same or not, time will give us change in abundance.

Even if your choice is perfect, you will have to put all your faith in one person, and someone will put all their faith in you. That’s a lot of pressure.

He likens ritual to the raft that takes you from one side of a river—one phase of life—to the other. “Ritual provides the exclamation points for our lives, more than it does the periods. Ritual is the wrapping that makes even the most outrageous ideals believable.”

marriage might just involve finding and refinding our own balance between boredom and jealousy, safety and danger.