The venerable institution of marriage can be, should be, a truly worthy endeavor. Few things in life could possibly be more important.

That so many marriages are rent asunder in our times is disappointing. I’ve read that perhaps half of all marriages in our country now don’t succeed. Such an appalling manifestation perhaps speaks to something amiss within our culture.

I’m nowhere near wise enough to offer an informed opinion as to just what may be the reason.

Fact is, I’m nowhere near wise enough to explain much about most things, to be honest. As my friend Skybo says, “I’m not as smart as I look.” (A bit of humor, and a large measure of truth, in my case.)

However, I am wise enough to know that the best and smartest thing I ever did took place October 16, 1965.  That’s when Sarah (Sally) Paul Cox joined me in holy matrimony at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church right here in our little town.

She tells people that she turned 21 on a Friday and got married the next day, and she’s not going to do that again.  (Now, just what is her point?) She also is quick to tell that she married an older man. Older? I wasn’t quite 27 at the time.

My First Wife and I think the quality and durability of marriage is built on friendship, trust, a large helping of humor, and a good pair of hearing aids. Fact is, a good sense of humor is an essential ingredient in a whole lot of things along life’s road.

Mr. Irwin Hulbert, rector at St. Peter’s, told us that each person giving 50 percent in a marriage wouldn’t work.  Each must be willing to give 100 percent. Ours was the first marriage he performed in Washington.

It’s been a good journey, and for that we’re grateful.  Please let me end this monograph with a powerful and poignant sentiment written so eloquently by

George Eliot:

“What greater thing is there for two human souls, than to feel that they are joined for life — to strengthen each other in all labor, to rest on each other in all sorrow, to minister to each other in all pain, to be one with each other in silent, unspeakable memories at the moment of the last parting?”

What greater thing, indeed.

Note: It doesn’t take much perspicacity, says our writer, to recognize that having a marriage mate who is an excellent cook is most definitely a positive component of the partnership.