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Joe Blair talks about his memoir, By the Iowa Sea, an unsentimental account of a family crisis and a natural disaster. After setting aside his dreams, Joe found himself middle-aged, with four kids, including a severely autistic son, and a marriage on the rocks. His memoir is the story of the changes his family went through to stay together.

On Wednesday's show, we asked you to text your answers to a four-part survey about attitudes towards living together before marriage. Almost 600 responded, here are some of the results. We'll post more data as we continute to crunch the numbers. Highlights:

• 58% of our respondents were female; 42% male
• Average age of respondents: 39
• In response to the question "In general, do you think people should live together before getting married?" 
• 84% of all respondents said YES.  
• 93% of men said YES
• 80% of women said YES
• 84% of those under 30 said YES, 87% over 30 said yes

Below, some charts showing the living situation breakdown for our respondents.

Like canoeing?  How about trips to the outer boroughs? Well, these and other routine-breakers may hold the key to a long-lasting relationship, says Dr. Art Aron.   

A Pew Research Center report released Wednesday shows 51 percent of all adults in the United States are now married — a record low. In 2010, a survey also conducted by Pew found that four in ten Americans thought marriage had become obsolete, but found that most people who had never married (61 percent) would like to do so someday.

Throughout the course of American history, a lot has been said about marriage in the African-American community. From scientific racism to the Moynihan Report to Tyler Perry, the way we discuss marriage in black America can be difficult and often controversial. The marriage rate has declined for all Americans over the past forty years, but it’s declined much faster in the black community. Why is this?

The most telling thing about “The Winter’s Tale,” currently in repertory with the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Park Avenue Armory, is what it does not show. We eagerly anticipate the moment when all will be revealed.

This weekend, gay couples in the state of New York will begin legally tying the knot. While most gay rights supporters have been vocally celebrating this milestone, there are others who don’t see legal same-sex marriage as a triumph. 

Governor Andrew Cuomo has made clear that clerks who do not wish to perform same-sex marriages should find other work. This Sunday, when same-sex couples statewide line up for the first day, clerks will perform the service that they were elected to do.

"You don't get to say, 'I like this law and I'll enforce this law, or I don't like this law and I won't enforce this law'—you can't do that.” Cuomo stated. “If you can't enforce the law, then you shouldn't be in that position."

Last month, New York State passed the Marriage Equality Act and became the sixth and largest state to legalize same-sex marriage. And starting this Sunday, July 24, gay partners can marry, with an estimated 66,524 couples expected to wed in New York over the next three years. This historic event will have impact beyond the issue of civil rights: Gay couples will see a variety of financial changes, too. If trickle-down economics is about the impact of economic policy on the individual, then this is the trickle-up economics of gay marriage–how a decision two people make willchange insurance, taxes, businesses, state revenues, and economic policy.

Diane Ackerman talks about her husband, Paul West’s, stroke and long recovery. He was afflicted with aphasia—loss of language—and Diane, frustrated with traditional therapies, relied on her scientific understanding of language and the brain to guide Paul back to the world of words. Her book One Hundred Names for Love: A Stroke, a Marriage, and the Language of Healing is an account of stroke, aphasia, and recovery, as well as a love story.

In the upcoming edition of The New York Times Sunday Magazine advice columnist Dan Savage has some words of wisdom for married couples, gay or straight. Savage, the sex-advice columnist best known for his "It Gets Better" project to help gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender teens deal with the cruelties of fellow high school students, says that married couples should not put so much stock in fidelity and monogamy, and should focus instead on honesty.

Pamela Haag looks at the state of marriage today and investigates why the generation of people who grew up believing they would "have it all" now have ended up disenchanted. In Marriage Confidential: The Post-Romantic Age of Workhorse Wives, Royal Children, Undersexed Spouses, and Rebel Couples Who Are Rewriting the Rules Haag writes about contemporary marriages where spouses act more like life partners than lovers, children take over the marital relationship, and where sexual fidelity and passion are constantly undermined.  She also looks at marriages that work, and how couples navigate the territories of career, money, social life, child rearing, and sex.