Love has been a complicated presence in my life from the very beginning. My parents had been trying, unsuccessfully, to have a baby for many years. My mother was finally able to get pregnant through a procedure of collecting and injecting my father’s sperm into her womb (a procedure that was “experimental” seventy-plus years ago)....Continue reading
Tag: Marriage
The One Thing That Kills Most Marriages
My wife, Carlin, and I were enjoying a wonderful dinner at the new vegan Caribbean restaurant in Willits when a friend and his wife saw us eating outside. “How’s the food here?” Henry wanted to know. “It’s great,” we told them. “It’s real, authentic, handmade, and delicious.” As we chatted they introduced us to Henry’s...Continue reading
Marriage is Good for Your Heart
Regardless of your feelings about marriage, you may want to give it a try–especially if you’re concerned about your health. Researchers at New York University studied 3.5 million people and found that married people have lower risks of vascular disease, coronary artery disease, aneurysms, and other heart-related conditions than those who are divorced, single, or...Continue reading
Ghost Mothers and Ghost Lovers
Editor’s note: This post is part 3 in a 3 part series on the Mother-Son dynamic. Click here for the other posts in the series. The child who finds out, all too abruptly and too soon, that he cannot count on his mother’s strength to be there for him . . . feels he has only...
Can Marriage Make You Healthier? Could Be
As those of us who work in men’s health know, one of the biggest obstacles keeping men from being as healthy as they could be is their overall reluctance to see a medical professional, whether that’s for regular, preventive care, or for an actual problem. When asked why they’re so resistant, men have a lot...Continue reading
Solutions and Cures for Passivity
The bottom line is: Passivity is the compulsion to try to get what we are desperately longing for, while doing all the wrong things or nothing to get it. (Note: This should not be confused with patience, which is knowing something worth waiting for is just around the corner — and taking appropriate steps to...Continue reading
Soul Mates: Expanding Your Possibilities
I remember reaching my fiftieth birthday. I’d relocated to theSan Diegoarea, was single again, and broken-hearted. I so wanted to be with my “soulmate,” and each time I fell in love, I was sure he was “the one.” Now I’d reached “the big 5-0,” and another relationship had ended, leaving me baffled, unsettled, despairing. After...Continue reading
Marriage is Good for Men’s Health—Especially When it Comes to Prostate Cancer Risk
If you’re at risk of developing prostate cancer and you’re considering getting a divorce or breaking up with your girlfriend, you might want to get some marriage counseling. According to new research, married men with prostate cancer are 40 percent less likely to die than single men with the disease.
The Tolerator: Is This Your Style Of Relating To Your Partner?
“I love you just the way you are…” croons this lover to the live-in partner who has just tracked in mud again on the new Berber carpet, and rear-ended a parked car trying a new paralleling maneuver. “Love me, love my shortcomings,” swoons the “Tolerator” partner. Their theme song echoes the ideal of unconditional love...Continue reading
Keeping Your Distance: American Men Deal With Intimacy
Intimacy is a scarcity for American men –if by “intimacy” we mean revealing and sharing what is innermost about us. Few men live by this creed. Intimate connection becomes an abstraction, a nice idea, a frustrated lack. The typical American male can’t grasp intimacy, having precious little real experience of it. Just mentioning the word...Continue reading