Love now and

stronger than anything.

Love is stronger than anything.

I feel I love for love.

And I love you more than anything.

There's still love as love.

From the New York Times, I'm Anna Martin.

This is Modern Love, and this is our first essay drop of the season, coming from a Modern Love veteran.

Dave Finch has written three Modern Love essays, all about how much he adores his wife Kristen and how hard he's tried to be a perfect husband to her.

Dave even wrote an entire rule book so he could remember how to do everything exactly right.

Now we all know a good partnership takes a lot of work

but Dave has had to put in extra effort.

Dave has autism and he struggles to pick up on cues about what other people want from him or how they're feeling.

That's why at the beginning of this essay you're about to hear,

Dave is totally blindsided when Kristen walks up to him with an announcement.

If you want to hear the many twists and turns of Dave and Kristen's story, you can listen to

my interview with him. Just look for it in our feed.

But now, here's Dave reading his essay, on the path to empathy, some forks in the road.

A few months before our 11th anniversary, my wife, Kristen, marched into our bathroom and told me that our marriage was over.

More jarring still was how casually she said it. I'd often been afraid that there might be a

last straw, a breaking point, but in my head the breakup scene was always far more dramatic.

After hours of yelling and slamming fists against walls, we'd face each other, our eyes teary and sincere,

...