I took my Marriage Rules and AI’s advice, put them in a pot, shook them together and asked AI to summarize our joint observations. When the words came out, I had the UMRF. I think it’s pretty good. …
Author: Robert
AI’s Marriage Rules
The artificial intelligent site I checked out provided the following observations regarding marriage. They’re matter of fact, built on statistics rather than personal observations. That doesn’t make them bad, just different. The ones I developed for David, Elizabeth and Michael were “before” marriage guidelines. AI’s are more encompassing. Align on Core Values Shared beliefs about …
No One Asked Me But…
Almost thirty years ago I developed The Marriage Rules for David, Elizabeth and Michael. The boys had brought home their current girlfriends during the college Christmas break. Michael was a freshman at Michigan State and David was a junior at Spring Arbor. I wrote the following blog about the development of the marriage rules and …
Conversations
After Ruth died I didn’t have anyone to hold a conversation with. I was alone. My three kids checked in on me to make sure I was OK. My friends and sisters did too, but checking in is different than having a meaningful conversation. If you’re engaged in a relationship, it’s normal to discuss the news …
Tomorrow
Tomorrow marks another Thanksgiving without several people I love. I chose Ruth and my friends, Jim and Mitch, to be a part of my life. Each one changed me bit by bit. I was born into my parents and cousin, Gene. It was love based upon circumstance. I didn’t have a say in the matter, …
Always, Forever and Never
I came across a quotation the other day that caused me to ponder a bit: Always is a habit. Forever is a hope. Never is a boundary. Those words carried me back to when our kids were growing up. Ruth and I leaned on them often. Never was the one we used most. One of …
Ed 108
I posted my first blog on November 19, 2017. I was starting a new hobby to help me fill my retirement hours. I knew nothing about writing but wanted to give it a shot. As of today, I’ve been writing my blog for eight years, and this is my 836th story. I chose my friend, …
Main Squeeze
I’ve written about the epiphany I had in my closet a year ago following my shoulder surgery. I was ending the seven weeks I spent recording my audiobook, thinking about my lot in life, wishing it would change and realizing I was the only one who could change it. I didn’t take action until I …
Another Second Chance
I originally wrote this tale in June of 2019. It was called Second Chances. I was about a year and a half into writing my blog when I published it. A ton has changed since that day. Life is full of surprises. Some are good. Some are tough to take. A couple of times a …
Avoid and Omit
One of my fellow memoir writers recently used two words in a story that struck a chord with me. Avoid and omit. The week before another writer shared an interview she’d conducted. The interviewee had used the word “nigger’ but the writer said n-word when she read the story aloud. That struck a chord with …