Patty and I went out to dinner tonight for a date. We had a nice time driving there and back and eating together a meal she didn’t cook or clean up after. We talked for most of the evening about anything and everything. More accurately Patty talked and I listened attentively, with grunts of affirmation in appropriate places. We have been married for 53 years and we have a very good marriage that is very fulfilling for both of us. Good marriages don’t just happen by accident, there is always a reason. There are a number of practices and disciplines we have maintained faithfully for most of our married life. Out of the dozen or so very important activities that make our marriage healthy the date that we go on almost weekly is one of the most important. The cool thing about a date is that we are on neutral ground and so discussions about things that we have differences on tend to be much more neutral, that is, more matter of fact and less emotional helping us to arrive at solutions and agreement easily. There are a bunch of other reasons why dates are a great tool to promote growth, unity, and romance in a marriage that I could mention, but the most basic is that the first thing I did in our relationship was to ask Patty out on a date and from that one date has come years of joy.