Carol called me up today. She’s taking care of some business back in Massachusetts for a few weeks, and she told me how that’s going. I told her about some of things that are going on here in California. We didn’t talk about anything of great consequence, but it has long seemed to me that long-term relationships are based on those conversations about less consequential things.

“I just realized,” I said, “that we met twenty years ago.”

“Is it really twenty years?” said Carol.

“I think so,” I said. “I’m pretty sure….”

“1989,” Carol said. “C—- got married twenty years ago,” she went on, thinking out loud. “Did I have that bridesmaid dress when we met?…” We finally decided that yes, we had met twenty years ago.

“We’ll have to celebrate when I get back,” Carol said. And then our conversation drifted on to other less-than-momentous topics: “Today is nine-nine-oh-nine,” she said. “Wow,” I said. “And next year there will be ten-ten-ten,” she said….