The Way She Looks: What Not to Say

by Christopher Dickey

See me. It bewilders me he doesn’t see me.

Men are not always good at showing the people we love that we see them. But there’s really nothing more important to a relationship. So now when my wife asks me how she looks, I say to her what I said to her more than two decades ago,when she was my girlfriend: “Perfect in every way.” And I mean it. And now she doesn’t push for me to find the slightest flaw. She says, “You’re saying that because you love me.”

Yes, I say, and because I love her, it’s true.

christopher dickey is newsweek’s paris bureau chief and middle east editor. his most recent book is the sleeper.