The secret to a good marriage

Building a Good Rest Stop

Maintaining the roadways between your differences

Everyone will tell you a good marriage takes work.

From the get-go, it can be hard to find consensus (on movies, music, how to load the dishwasher, etc.)

Your tastes may be very different. One might love the Sopranos. The other can’t handle the violence. Or you might have loved the Gilmore Girls. But your beloved didn’t because there was just way too much talking.

The key point is that, although you differ drastically, you can maintain the roadways between those differences.

You don’t have to meet and agree in all the places of your lives. Just build lovely rest stops at the points where you do meet.

Regularly inspect the highways, repave where necessary, fix potholes.

Repair plumbing. Repaint. Check the hinges on cupboard doors.
WD-40 the squeaky ones.

Work on your connections.

Attraction forms the smallest part of a marriage. Respect, a larger part.
But by far, love and sheer endurance form the rest of it.