FRIENDS TELL ME that family therapy has helped their marriages. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like those pricey bills. So let me share my remedy: I wash the dishes.

That’s right, keeping kitchen stuff grease- and germ-free through hand washing is my ticket to a relatively stress-free, relatively content marriage. For one thing, the task is a lot of work. I do every plate, bowl, and pot, every meal, day after day. And I’ve been “Palmoliving” them for 30 years. By this point, the pile would be about as high as our national deficit. Stack them up, and they’d reach heaven.