A quiet celebration

Today is my, ooops, sorry, our, 46th wedding anniversary.  Despite my occasionally disparaging 'jokes' at the expense of the 'Memsahib', it has been a pretty damn good 46 years.  Sometimes, as I look around at the train-wreck marriages of friends and aquaintances, I ask myself how it is that we have withstood "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" so well?  Setting aside, for the moment, my good-natured tolerance, wisdom and generosity which have played such an enormous part, I am forced to conclude that really it has all been a piece of colossal luck!  The 'Memsahib' and I just fit together, not perfectly, you understand, but roughly; we are joined and jointed in more or less the same way and thus the inescapable friction entailed in any long partnership is minimised.  Needless to say, like anyone else, I didn't know this for sure when we married, I just rolled the dice and they came up double six!

In composing my talk this week to the ladies of the Women's Institute, entitled Shakespeare in Love, I was forced to contemplate not so much the nature of true love, as the true nature of love.  I think, on the whole, that it does not exist, or if it does, it is best avoided as a basis for a long marriage.  In my view, it is better to like than to love because liking lasts longer than loving.  Which is just another way of saying that the greatest gift to be blessed with in a marriage - is friendship.

Here endeth the first lesson 'cos I'm off to the local gastro-pub for a slap-up lunch!

 

Comments

[Dexter VanDango]

Oh, you old romantic, you!

Here's a song that may well illustrate your tremulous effusions on the subject.

It's called "If you loved me".. and it's buried among other similar ditties..

Feel free to sing along.. if you can... it almost killed me..

http://www.musicalley.com/music/artists/restricted.php?pageNum_MusicList=0&totalRows_MusicList=12

[Dexter VanDango]

..and tell the missus, "If I had committed a triple murder I would have been released by now."

..they like that sort of comparison..

[David Duff]

Thanks, Dexter, for the link but, alas, it will not let me through. Just for a moment I thought you were putting me in touch with the beautiful Rogers & Hammerstein "If I loved you" from Carousel.

As for the joke, which cracked me up, I think perhaps that today is not the day to try it on the 'Memsahib'. She'll only go and get her karate outfit!

[JK]

Well, seeing as how you've phrased it I'm making this link achievable. The Memsahib should be congratulated on her tastes - the pic obviously shows she "liked" your checkered past, er, pants:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRv_ItUlsWo

[David Duff]

Actually I did once have some trousers in the Black Watch tarton, way back in the age of long sideburns, droopy moustaches and velvet cummerbands. Oh God, the '80s were hideous!

[JK]

Was that in your second-hand cars selling days?

And pray tell, what the hell is a cummerband, velvet or otherwise?

[David Duff]

You guessed, JK!

And a cummerband is a wide strip of satin or velvet or something similar which was worn round the waist by chaps in evening dress in lieu of a belt. In fact I would defend its use because it was rather smart and I'm sorry it seems to have disappeared these days. Incidentally, my Black Watch trousers were only worn on such 'black tie' occasions and again I think they looked pretty good. I wore them on the utterly specious basis that I am half Scots!

[dearieme]

Cummerbunds have the added advantage of being adjustable - as your waist waxes and wanes, so does it, unlike the trousers and jacket. I still have my cummerbund but sold my DJ years ago. Likewise, I can still wear my sporran.

[David Duff]

Good point, DM, and my waist seems to be all wax and no wane these days!

I did once consider buying a kilt but one look at the Duff tarton was enough to put me off - and a second look at my skinny little legs was the clincher!

[hank]

David

Congratulations!

Mrs. Duff must be a very long suffering and patient soul.

May you both have many more.

[David Duff]

Quite so, Hank, and she has the Long Service & Good Conduct Medal - and bar - to prove it!

Thanks for your good wishes.

[Mike Cunningham]

Well done David, my wife and I are celebrating our 43rd on Thursday this week.
My kids have asked several times, of times when their Mom and I were having problems, and what kept us together.
My reply is always the same, 'we could not get divorced because we couldn't agree about the kids; I wanted her to keep them, and she wanted me to take 'em!'

[David Duff]

Thanks, Mike, and I'll raise a glass to a fellow 'lifer' on Thursday.

[Dexter VanDango]

At one point, towards the end of my 20 year long marriage I said to my wife, "It's a good thing we married each other instead of making two other innocent people miserable."

But as you know women are no fans of irony, and soon after we decided to spread the misery.

[David Duff]

Bad luck, Dexter. You must remember the two most important words needed to secure a long-lasting marriage - 'yes, dear'!

[Sister Wolf]

"Yes. dear," so true, and my own husband is a master of the phrase.

I'm so happy for you and your wife. Well done!

Now, if only I could get a photo of you wearing the tartan trousers, my life would be complete. Please think it over!

[David Duff]

Alas, I don't hink I would stand a chance of getting in to them these days even if they were still around which they are not. However, I wonder if they do tartan long johns?!

[Tim Newman]

Congratulations! 46 years is good going indeed.

An old oilfield hand once told me the secret of his 45 year marriage: I was never at home!

[David Duff]

Thanks, Tim,and your pal has a point!