“I just wish he would say, ‘I love you,’ more often,” the woman confided to her friend. “Is that too much to ask?”
I was listening to a couple of women talk about the problems one of them has in her marriage. They were sitting at a table next to me at dinner Saturday night. They weren’t very loud, so I didn’t get all the details, but I was struck very strongly by the fact that the troubled woman seemed to believe her life would be so much better if her husband just said those three little words more often.
We’ve been conditioned by our culture to think that words of love will make everything all right. The Beatles told us that “love is all you need” and many people believed them, because it feels so good to think that. Popular culture is full of this notion. If you say, “I love you,” and you mean it, everything will be great. (Cue romantic music and happy ending.)

We’re neither friends nor enemies, just strangers who share the past
‘This path leads to somewhere I think I can finally say, I’m home’
When love finally dies, it’s like a fever breaks and the pain is gone
X-ray scanners used by TSA banned in Europe over health concerns
Despite promise of new tech, today’s journalism is just trivia
Peace won’t come until you quit obeying long-gone programmers
To escape hate, turn off media and deal with others in love, kindness
As my path keeps changing, I can now admit my plans are useless