As the Nooks & Crannies series nears its conclusion, these reflections on marriage and family from Anna Quindlen’s memoir Lots Of Candles, Plenty Of Cake bear repeating:
If a marriage is to endure over time, it has to be because both people within it have tacitly acknowledged something that young lovers might find preposterous: it’s bigger, and more important, than both of us. It’s love, sure, and inside jokes and conversational shorthand. But it’s also families, friends, traditions, landmarks, knowledge, history. It’s children, children whose parents’ marriage is bedrock for them even if they’re not children anymore. Perhaps especially if they’re not children anymore.
I’m not sure I’ve ever read a better take on a more important subject.