I attended a wedding a few years ago and on the back of the wedding program was listed some of the marriage advice the bride’s third grade students had given her. Their comments were remarkably astute. For instance: Always hear each other, never fight about silly things, tell the truth always.
LOVE each other. If you get in fights, remember the good times.
When you fight, don’t yell or call names. On your anniversary, go out to dinner. Spend time together on the weekend and kiss each other before you go to work. Eat dinner together at the table. Kiss each other goodnight. And if one person is sick, the other should take care of them.
Wow. I was pretty impressed with these words of wisdom from eight year olds. But this is my favorite piece of advice, and it probably appealed to the bride, who is a musician:
Marriage is like a duet. When one sings the other claps.
One of the best things about having a good duet partner is that they support you all the way through the song, and applaud your efforts when you’re done. They aren’t out to prove they’re a better musician than you, they rejoice in your success and bolster your performance when things get tricky.
I was lucky enough to marry my own duet partner - literally and figuratively. As teenagers, my husband and I were studying piano with the same teacher. After confiding our mutual attraction for one another, and then confessing our shyness about pursuing it, she conveniently paired us as duet partners for the spring recital. Three years later, we were married, and, as our Best Man said to us in his wedding toast, we have been making beautiful music ever since.
That was thirty eight years ago today. So I’m thinking about the last piece of advice those third graders had for their teacher, advice that was really more of a charge:
You should be married FOREVER.
I couldn’t agree more.
Happy anniversary to my duet partner forever.