Phil Elmore: Individual Authoring Services

Why I Love My Wife
The Benefits of Marrying Above Your Station

I love my wife. She's a beautiful, intelligent, warm, and thoroughly noble woman. She's consistent in her beliefs, moral in her character, true to her ideals, thoughtful and considerate in her actions. But apart from her personal qualities, Beth has accomplished something that scientific observers and U.N. Peacekeepers would have judged impossible: she has managed to live with me.

I'm an incredibly neurotic human being. I obsess over imagined and hypochondriacal concerns; my wife patiently reassures me and defuses my anxiety with humor. I can be difficult to live with. I write hot-headed political rants and rave about whatever half-baked notion has recently entered my skull; my wife calmly points out issues I have not considered. I am prone to frequent mood swings. I can be almost manic one moment and depressed the next; my wife lovingly soothes my concerns and cheers me up when I'm down. All this begs the question: why? Why does she do it?

There is only one satisfactory explanation: I did something really, really good in a past life. Jumped in front of a bus to save a nun, or more likely, an entire tour group full of nuns. Rescued a score of big-eyed orphans and their pet dogs and cats from a burning building. Gave my life holding a mountain pass from an invading army intent on stomping my village full of fair-haired innocents. Sacrificed myself to detonate the nuclear weapon that destroyed the asteroid that was heading straight for Earth. Well, OK, maybe that last one was the climax of Armageddon, but the idea is there.

The concept of Yin and Yang is one of complimentary forces that share a core of similarity. I have long thought of my marriage in that way. While my wife and I may see a situation or an issue differently, at the core of our thinking is the same thought process, the same basic approach. The ways in which we help and need each other range from trivial to profound. When my wife needs a bug killed or a toilet tank mechanism adjusted, I'm there for her. When I need the clarity of seeing myself through more objective eyes, she's there for me. And the components of our personalities bolster each other, becoming an incredibly strong whole. I couldn't imagine a better marriage, or a better friendship.

I'm writing all of this today to tell you that marriage is a good thing. The next time you hear yet another report of how many marriages end in divorce, or some stupid scientific study that claims every man everywhere is destined by biology to cheat on his wife, or some twit on a street corner pontificating on the outdated institution of marriage and how it serves no purpose in our enlightened contemporary age, know that all of that is garbage. To be married is a wonderful thing -- and to be perfectly matched is to have accomplished the greatest and most challenging thing any of us will do in a lifetime.