As Valentine’s Day rounds the corner, as you are perusing our Align Valentine’s Day gift guide for him or her, your mind may begin to wander to the topic of love. You may wonder in stunned gratitude at your own luck in finding a spouse as, over the years, marriage rates continue to fall. If single, you may begin to meditate on the apparent difficulty of the current situation: why are relationships so difficult to achieve? to maintain? to improve? to appreciate?

This February, Girlboss, Interrupted will feature several public intellectuals interested in getting to the bottom of the modern romantic crisis, which has been well-documented by the statisticians at the Institute for Family Studies. Christian theologian, author, and counselor Dean Abbott, whose offers one-on-one consultation, and whose aphorisms are a nice addition to the Twitter timeline, sat down last week to set the scene, and answer some of those questions.

Stay tuned for next week, when we built on the foundation Abbott has set with Adam Lane Smith: an attachment specialist who has developed program for helping men and women improve their marriages through better communication.