Published Articles
By Dr. William R. Morrow

“In the Zone”

The question is, do I operate a sexually oriented business or not? Bureaucrats want to know. Since I professionally practice and write about relationships between the sexes, do I fall under zoning scrutiny? Yikes! I might be subject to the dreaded zoning laws of Cape Coral! Assuredly, nobody actually does "sex" in my office, but still, I acknowledge that smoke rises from the loveseat where sex and sexuality, as words and attitudes are thrown about, like hot potatoes, by laboring couples. Although I am not a sex therapy specialist, I cannot deal with marriage conflicts at my office without confronting the myriad of differences between males and females. What happens in the bedroom is a direct result of what happens in the rest of the house! Gender issues are rampant! I heal the interplanetary rifts between Mars and Venus, and live to tell about it for future columns.

Naturally, I want to be in the proper (psychic) zone when I write about relationships. I want to create just the right balance between reason and emotion, between head and heart, because the kinds of relationships I will write about are intimate relationships. It's the never-ending male/female thing where feelings lurch up and down like the stock market. Romantic fortunes are won and lost throughout the city in a single night's assortment of good and bad communications. What you thought was a long-term relationship, suddenly staggers and falls from grace, just as some subterranean event in the developmental cycle of a marriage rumbles into reality. I mean, when you live your God-given life in a relationship, things change unexpectedly. You get blindsided by births, deaths, and (worse than death) midlife crises. Not to mention the major daily fluctuations of your partner's mood. Thus, you need to keep alert. Know what's happening to you viz a viz the opposite sex. I want to write to urge that you avoid the pitfalls of dumb decisions and words you can't take back. It's a jungle out there, and I call upon the relationships muses to help me drop a little calmness into the chaos. I will write to bring a dose of healthy perspective, and give you, the readers, the occasional ability to levitate (i.e.," to temporarily float above ground level; to laugh"). Believe me, it's tough enough to actually do marriage therapy in my office; here, on these pages, I have to write sensibly about intimate interaction between men and women. All the more reason that I need to stay in the zone, like one who is in a trance state, suspended. Neither heavy nor light, harsh nor wimpy.

Since most of the people who get a divorce never go to a marriage therapist, I'll use this forum to go to them. I mean, before it is too late, get the word out. In this column, I intend to write about issues, which couples, troubled in their relationships, can reason together about. I say therapists should take the opportunity to do preventive medicine when they can.

So, I am not the only one who has to do my work in the correct zone. Staying in the right zone is vital to the maintenance of intimate relationships as well. I am offering some hope to support that effort.

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