Trench Warfare

Marriage, that is. Well, certainly that was the image I got from reading Men are From Mars, Women are from Venus. It's a great book with great success in helping married couples pull through, but looking in from the outside as an inveterate single, I couldn't help coming away with the impression that marriage is tough work. I don't doubt it either. Immediately I have to ask what value it has then? Obviously a book like this is not written to address the beauty of marriage - that should be self-evident to those in a successful marriage. The underlying message in writing a book like this is that marriage is such a wonderful and important institution that it is worth finding a way to preserve a marriage, rather than surrender to divorce and its ugly scars. I'll go one step further and say that to me the most beautiful type of love is not so much the blossoms that come out in the spring as much as the wonderful commitment that pulls a couple through the winter. In fact, the spring becomes more beautiful because of the winter, and the very thought of spring is what pulls us through.