Marriage, Kindness, and Articulation: Strange Bedfellows?
Not really.
When I was researching my book, The Power of Being Articulate, I found a plethora of compelling statistical and empirical evidence that connects the ability to communicate with wealth and jobs in the plush corner offices. I found only subtle hints that connect the ability to communicate with that desirable and decidedly personal human condition we call ‘happiness’.
My curiosity piqued, I researched the causes of happiness and found a universal truth: Happiness is caused largely by relationships with people with whom you can communicate clearly and kindly. I love ‘clearly’ and teach it ad infinitum in my writeshops, and I especially love ‘kindly’ and wish we had more of it everywhere. Is DC listening?
I then asked the seven people I profiled in the book–the seven people I dubbed “The Articulates’ for their abilities to communicate–if they are happy, and to rate their happiness on that ubiquitous scale of one (not happy) to ten (incredibly happy). They rated their happiness at 9.1, impressively y high, especially when you consider that respondents to other surveys of more general populations rate their happiness around six.
Digging further, I read three books on happiness. All three authors are prominent professors and psychologists and agree that relationships, whether romantic or platonic, close or casual, are, if not the most important cause of happiness, certainly right up there as one of the more important. One author pointed out that being married, perhaps the closest of relationships, is the second most important cause.
David Tusick, my friend and the guru behind marketing my books via social media, married Rachel Neff on May 14 on the idyllic island of Saint Lucie, a destination wedding. If I knew them when I was writing my book on articulation, I would have dubbed both as ‘Articulates’. I predict a plethora ofsmiles and laughs throughout their productive lives.
David and Rachel remind me of Sherry Davis Guth and her husband Bob. Sherry is a marketing guru and an Articulate who I profiled in my book; she married Bob in part because of their shared ability to articulate. They actually can talk to each other clearly and kindly, and are among the happiest married couples I know.
Sherry and Bob inscribed the insides of their wedding bands with three simple words: trust, respect, honesty. None is possible without communicating, clearly and kindly, of course.
Marriage, Kindness, and Articulation: Strange Bedfellows? was originally published on The Expressive Press