Pushkin.

I want one on a riverboat cruise with my husband and some friends.

As we chugged along the Connecticut River, we enjoyed some picnic food and talked and laughed together.

But I was also a bit distracted by an elderly couple sitting nearby.

They just seemed kind of uninterested in everything. They didn't seem to take notice of us,

their fellow passengers, or the gorgeous scenery along the riverbanks.

But what was most disturbing was that they also seemed really uninterested in one another.

I don't think they shared a single word the entire trip. When we finally docked, I saw the couple's daughter waiting for them on land.

She seemed excited to know if they'd had fun.

You see, she explained to the boat captain,

this was their wedding anniversary. On the drive home I

couldn't stop thinking about that couple. Could any couple fall mute like that?

Could it happen to you or me? How do we keep the conversation going?

That's the question I want to address in this next installment of our short season on happiness

and love. I want to explore how couples can communicate better to build happier, healthier relationships.

And so I tagged in journalist Charles DuHigg, author of a recent book entitled,

Super Communicators, How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection.

Charles was a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and reporter,

someone who has made an entire career using words

to express complex ideas.

But Charles, as it turns out, wasn't always a super-communicator,

particularly when it came to talking to his wife.

...