Today Claire and I are celebrating 47 years of marriage. There\u2019s a lot of things I could write about the past 47 years\u2026 I could write about how undeserving I am and how amazing she is and how the last 47 years has been an amazing journey with her. Those things are all true and I could write about, and sincerely mean, them.<\/p>\n
But I thought today, I\u2019d just talk about marriage \u2014 and ours, in particular. If I remember correctly, when you marry, it\u2019s for better or worse. We\u2019ve had untold \u201cbetter\u201d times. We have a lot of friends that have been married a long time and appear to love each other very much. But I honestly can\u2019t think of anyone who has had more fun being married than me and Claire. Of course, anyone can endure the good or better times. In the last 47 years, I can\u2019t think of anything that we\u2019ve experienced that would fall into the \u201cworse\u201d category.<\/p>\n
I think our relationship with each other is the most important \u2014 more important than our relationships with friends, parents, relatives, our iPhones, or even our children. Yea, even our kids\u2026 I think they understand that and I don\u2019t think they\u2019d have it any other way. I think we have a pretty good balance between our common interests\/hobbies\/activities and our \u201cown stuff.\u201d There are things that I like that Claire really isn\u2019t interested in and of course she\u2019s interested\/involved in things I don\u2019t care so much about. But we\u2019re supportive of each other and taking time away to enjoy those activities by ourselves or with friends makes our time together more special.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u201d say that in a marriage, communication is everything. I don\u2019t disagree, but communicating with each other isn\u2019t as easy as it sounds\u2026 Obviously, we both have different communication styles. I think<\/em> I usually express my thoughts in a fairly straight-forward manner. Claire tends to be more all over the place when she tells me something. I\u2019m not complaining\u2026 we both respect each other\u2019s communication style and, in fact, since we\u2019ve been married, I tend to talk (and ramble) a bit more and I have to say that Claire is better about getting to the point most of the time.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a book titled \u201c Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus\u201d or something like that. Actually, that\u2019s true. That\u2019s because we\u2019re different<\/em>. We express ourselves differently, we solve problems differently, we respond to stress differently. When we\u2019re driving, I react to the idiots on the road very differently than Claire. She handles difficult situations with much more diplomacy than I do. But accepting each other\u2019s differences is all part of marriage.<\/p>\n Nit-picking is so easy to do\u2026.and it doesn\u2019t accomplish anything. There are lots of little things that Claire does that I could pick apart \u2014 there are thousands (possibly millions) of things that I do that she could harp on. But life\u2019s too short to nit-pick. We\u2019ve been together long enough to see friends and family divorces, deaths and tragedies and realize how fortunate we\u2019ve been\u2026. so I think we keep nit-picking to a minimum.<\/p>\n So overall, to say it\u2019s been a pretty good 47 years would be a monumental understatement \u2014 It\u2019s been a great<\/em> 47 years. Someone recently said that it was great that I\u2019d found \u201cthe one\u201d for me. I\u2019m glad I found \u201cthe one\u201d too. But we\u2019d probably all be better off if we just tried to be<\/em> \u201cthe one.\u201d Happy Anniversary to Claire \u2014 and me\u2026.. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today Claire and I are celebrating 47 years of marriage. There\u2019s a lot of things I could write about the past 47 years\u2026 I could write about how undeserving I am and how amazing she is and how the last … Continue reading
\n\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n