All this discussion about emotion led me to a fairly obvious question: How can I justify, with rationality and intelligence, my five-plus decades love affair with the only woman I have ever loved, outside my family?

This is not an academic endeavor. It is also not philosophical. The task is to express, in concrete terms, the how’s and why’s of my love for my sweetheart. Can it be done? Is it possible to express the nuts-and-bolts of enduring romantic love? Let’s see…

I love Sherry because of who she is, what she is, and how she is, not some psychobabble emotional nonsense. Is love an emotion? Sure, but it extends from rationality and intelligence. I could not love Sherry on the basis of emotion alone. That is a formula for failure, as the current divorce-rate testifies.

True love relies on logic. If you can't answer the question "Why are you in love?" with rationality and intelligence, you are in a state of emotional propaganda. Emotion is not justification for much of anything but puppy-petting and cat-hugging. Emotion is a by-product, not a prime mover. Emotion is a shallow pool, a pretentiously empty library, a doomed chase after ephemerality. And yet, as an observed by-product, love and its attendant emotion has the ability to dissolve me into a blubbering toddler.

Sherry is the perfect woman for me for several empirical reasons:

1. She has a strength of character that is easily my match. I have never met a woman her equal;

2. She is my epitome of grace and beauty. She is always, as Clapton sang so beautifully, "Wonderful Tonight;"

3. She has an innate sense of service. Not that service equates to duty. Quite the opposite. For her, service is the primary purpose of life. Her gracious, unassuming service, indeed, invites grace. It is fulfillment that provides positive and enriching results. Convincing her that rest is necessary, is always an unwinnable task;

4. I melt when she hugs me. Okay, that one was purely emotional. However, the hug-effect is based on all the other items. Judges?

The emotion of love I feel for Sherry, is a by product of articulable characteristics. Reason and logic constitute the formula for understanding. The emotion is a grateful reward for gaining that understanding, however, the understanding is the true and lasting reward. How much more would we love God, if we knew Him better?