The perfect date night for the man with a plan? Take your baby to the shootin’ range.

This week’s homily at The Church of Splendor is called Four Word Marriage Therapy: Doing Stuff Alone Together. In the video I make a number of suggestions of activities that couples who want to be more loving can undertake alone together, but this morning I had what I think is an inspired idea:

Take your honey to the shooting range.

Alone together? You bet. It’s not a suite at Caesars’ or a changing room at Nordstrom’s, but the two of you will be alone together in your stall, in very cramped quarters, with lots of physical contact – especially the standing-behind-her kind. Even better, every report from every gun will be startling, and an aura of danger-barely-held-at-bay will pervade everything.

This is sexy stuff for a woman, the armed essence of the manly display. As Prince reminds us, the womanly display consists of “something close to nothing, but different from the day before.” But for a man to display his sexuality in a way most enthralling to his woman, he must demonstrate his ardor for her – by his mien, in his manner and with his gear. When you have your arms over hers as she squeezes off rounds from your peacemaker – you will look and feel like the man she’s looking and feeling for.

Shooting ranges should have a weekly Ladies Night anyway. It’s a great way for women to take responsibility for their own values – and a great way for men to meet women who are demonstrably serious about self-responsibility.

But for all you encoupled couples, a date night that begins and ends with a bang just might start at the range.

In church I am talking about the DISC of marriage – by way of the excellent Tony Robbins DISC assessment. The two of you couldn’t get more Sociably Driven or more us-against-the-world than this date. This is the power of philosophy, to identify the best praxis, to make the best map. More ideas and lots and lots of theory in the video: