Have you ever gotten to witness the look of sheer, unadulterated joy on a person’s face when something unexpected comes along to brighten their day? I got to witness a moment such as this on my wife’s face a while back. You’re probably asking yourself, since this lucky lady is married to me, what could possibly make her life any better? Well, apparently it doesn’t take all that much.

The moment occurred on one of those shoot-the-moon, devil-may-care Saturday nights that only two people who have been married for more than 20 years can have. We were sitting in our living room, me in my chair, her on the couch, Chubby the cat sprawled on her back airing out her nether regions on the hardwood floor, watching television.

This was one of those rare evenings when I, without too much argument, allowed my wife to be in charge of the remote control. This doesn’t happen very often because, quite honestly, she’s not very good at it. Even though I have tried to coach her, she insists on going through the channels in a willy-nilly manner. At times, in an ascending numerical order, at other times, in a descending chronological arc. She’ll hover and stop on dumb programs like the local news while skipping right by television shows about guys bass fishing. There is no rhyme or reason to her methods.