Relent, Release, Retreat: Steve Martin's Tips

Have you ever seen the movie Father Of The Bride 2? There's a hilarious scene in the movie where Steve Martin is trying to get a Doberman Pincer to retreat. He can't remember the command to get the dog to retreat so he says "release! relent! retreat!" but it doesn't seem to work and the dog ends up chasing him. Some of the most important words in marriage are retreat, relent, release. We're prone to use military metaphors and attack our spouse or sports metaphors to be aggressive. But there's nothing so honorable and noble as to avoid criticism, belittling, caustic remarks, satirical remarks, sarcasm and snarky attacks.