Category: Marriage
-
A Marital Memory from the ‘Nineties
I had dropped her off at Sky Harbor on a Thursday. She was headed to a conference. I said, "You'll miss Seinfeld." She said, "I'll miss you!" (Seinfeld episodes, the original series, were aired on Thursday nights.) As our 42nd anniversary approaches, I recall the incident with deep love and gratitude. She has probably forgotten…
-
A Test for Marital Compatibility
Sage Substack advice. Hit the road with your bride-to-be and see if she can take a little hard travelin'. A reader comments: I tried something similar in the summer of '79. The girlfriend was Juanita, Sicilian by lineage and temperament, a Tae Kwon champion, and a commercial pilot. I proposed a drive to…
-
Family Life with the Cheever’s
I'm sure family life has its compensations. But it is not for everybody. I live with an angelic wife and two black cats. All four of us will die without issue. My contact with relatives is minimal. Blood is thicker than water, but consanguinity is no guarantee of spiritual affinity, and in some cases the…
-
Marital Vows
The more seriously you take them, the more careful you will be in the selection of a spouse. Herewith, then, an argument for taking them seriously.
-
A Cure for Infatuation
One of the best is marriage. Substack latest.
-
My Angelic Wife
One indicator of her angelicity is her support of my chess activities — in stark contrast to the wives of two acquaintances both of whose 'better' halves destroyed their chess libraries in fits of rage at their time spent sporting with Caissa. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," wrote old Will. I'm no…
-
Saturday Night at the Oldies: Marital Advice
Before you even think of getting married, make sure you have plenty of money. Then shop around. Consider who will become your mother-in-law. If you want to be happy, don't worry too much about physical beauty. If she has a cheatin' heart, hit the road, Jack. But then again you might be better off without…
-
Can One Copulate One’s Way to Chastity?
John B. writes, I'm a regular reader of your blog and I've written very occasionally, but not for a few years. Here's another comment. I enjoy your periodic return to the question of whether one can philosophize one's way to a release from philosophy. But I think that, to split hairs, you're wrong to say…
-
Why We Get Along
I'm reasonable; she's sweet and agreeable.
-
For My Divorced Friends
A little poem by Dorothy Parker: Comment Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,A medley of extemporanea;And love is a thing that can never go wrong;And I am Marie of Roumania. (From the front matter of Joseph Epstein, Divorced in America: Marriage in an Age of Possibility, E. P. Dutton, 1974.)
-
A Cure for Infatuation?
One of the very best is marriage. Infatuation is a form of idolatry that cannot last long in a marriage. Marriage cures it. That's an argument for marriage. There was no cure for Don Quixote's romantic fantasies because their object, the fair Dulcinea del Toboso, existed only in his imagination.* But while infatuation lasts, it…
-
How to Get Your Spouse to do Some Work around the House
Do some work around the house.
-
The Power of Love
Ways and foibles that once annoyed are now cherished reasons to love her more. Love makes of the merely particular, the unique and precious.
-
Seeking a Mate?
Better a loving heart than super smart.
-
Into the Late Sensate: Concupiscense Unconstrained
Sociologist Pitirim Sorokin has proven to be remarkably prescient. From Pitirim Sorokin Revisited: Sorokin’s critique of private life begins with the disintegration of the family. “Divorces and separations will increase until any profound difference between socially sanctioned marriages and illicit sex-relationship disappears,” he predicted in the final volume of Social and Cultural Dynamics. [rev. ed.…