Thoughts on Marriage: on the eve of our 47th wedding anniversary

I highly recommend marriage. Eldon is my rudder, my fan, my adviser, and my second conscience. Plus he's a lot of fun. He can still shiver my timbers.

To quote Buddha from a book Carl sent to Eldon: "The greatest happiness which a mortal man can imagine is the bond of marriage that ties together two loving hearts.... The husband who loves his wife and desires for a union that shall be everlasting must be faithful to her so as to be like truth itself, and she will rely upon him and revere him and minister unto him. And the wife who loves her husband and desires for a union that shall be everlasting must be faithful to him so as to be like truth itself; and he will place his trust in her, he will honor her, he will provide for her. Verily, I say unto you, their wedlock will be holiness and bliss, and their children will become like unto their parents and will bear witness to their happiness." Buddha rocks!

The whole June Ensign is about marriage, but I'll just give one sobering quote from Hugh B. Brown: "When one accepts the conditions and obligations of the eternal partnership, he must realize that failure here is almost total failure. Whatever his successes may be in other fields of activity, if a man fails to discharge the obligations imposed by the eternal covenant, the appalling penalty will be the loss of celestial glory, accompanied by responsibility for the losses sustained by those with whom he made the contract and for whom he is responsible."