The Resistance of the Third Fold

We all reach that point in marriage where we simply cannot take another step. It is that Tuesday night where the bank account is in the red, the kids will not stop screaming, the house is a mess, and both spouses look at each other with that 'say one more word and I will explode' face. There is no backup patience, no romantic smiles, just two profoundly exhausted people trying to survive the week.

We are often sold the romantic idea that human love can overcome anything and that if we try hard enough, we will always have something to give. But the truth is that you and I are limited. We are like two strands of yarn facing the friction of a giant sandpaper called 'daily life', and under the pressure of debt, illness, or simple chronic fatigue, those human strands begin to fray.

When this happens, we usually panic. We think that because we no longer feel magical butterflies in our stomachs or because we are irritated by the way the other chews their food, our marriage is doomed to fail. It scares us to see our own weakness, and it terrifies us to realize that our partner's patience also ran out on the exact same day ours did.