40 Years Is a Lo-o-ng Time

This week makes 41 years of togetherness. I don't feel like writing about anything this week, so I’ll insert a comment Sugar wrote for her column just a year ago today. 

“REFLECTION: Come to think of it, 40 years is a lo-o-ng time for two people to live together under the same roof. Walt and I celebrated that passage of time Sunday. There’s a certain elation in having achieved that fact! 

“How young and inexperienced we both were that day in 1939 when we followed that impulse to elope. Although Walt had 12 years seniority on me, his wisdom in conducting a marriage was no greater than my own. Maybe it was just pure luck, as he has maintained all these years. (I always tell him it required a lot of work on my part.) 

“Forty years encompass a kaleidoscope of colorful changes. Events have a way of molding a relationship over the years, and how one handles those events determines the quality of the relationship. 

“If the experience gained over the years could be recycled and rearranged, the next time around could be paradise. Or would it? If everything was that perfect, there would be no challenge, and life would be boring. A relationship without some difference would be dullsville. 

“We’ve learned and grown together, and life has never been dull for either of us. Rather, it has been exciting as we’ve explored different avenues, and made new discoveries. 

“As for the years passed, we’ve become more comfortable with each other, appreciating more fully each other’s uniqueness, and caring less about the dissimilarities. With age comes a certain acceptance of just how fragile life is, and the determination to make each day ‘the first day of the rest of our lives."

"Reflections" Kik-Backs, page 88 (home)     (thread)

Walt Kik

“How young and inexperienced we both were..."

My photo from 1973 in front of 'The Bookie', Washington State University

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