I grew up watching television: a picture window to the world of American relationships. June and Ward. Lucy and Ricky. Laura and Rob. Carol and Mike. Emily and Bob. Mary. Rhoda. Edith and Archie.  Maude. Louise and George. Happily married or happily single people. All so likable. With laugh tracks, or receptive studio audiences.

Watching them, these fictional people, as a kid and as a teenager… perhaps it shaped me. Perhaps it contributed to who I am now: a once happily single and now happily married person. We’re certainly a likable couple. And I have a laugh track in my head; it plays when things get ridiculous. (No studio audiences in my head, that would be weird.)