Marriage advice from someone who made it

Over the past week I have heard former President Ronald Reagan described as everything from a saint who saved the world to a demon murderer from hell. Where does the truth lie? Where it does for all of us human beings - somewhere in between. I could give you my opinion on Reagan, but it would be biased because I am a conservative Republican who believes that the world would be a much different (and worse) place had Reagan not been elected president (there I go giving you my opinion...oops).

The opinion of Reagan as a politician may be diverse, but there was one thing about him that appeared to be universally accepted and even (by those of us who believe in marriage) admired. After 52 years of marriage, his wife was still thoroughly in love with and devoted to him.

What makes a marriage stand the test of time? Here's part of the answer. This is some of the advice Reagan gave to his son Michael on the occasion of his marriage (from the book "Reagan, A Life in Letters"):

"Some men feel their masculinity can only be proven if they play out in their own life all the locker-room stories, smugly confident that what a wife doesn't know won't hurt her. The truth is, somehow, way down inside, without her ever finding lipstick on the collar or catching a man in the flimsy excuse of where he was till three a.m., a wife does know, and with that knowing, some of the magic of this relationship disappears."

"Any man can find a twerp here and there who will go along with cheating, and it doesn't take all that much manhood. It does take quite a man to remain attractive and to be loved by a woman who has heard him snore, seen him unshaven, tended him while he was sick and washed his dirty underwear."

"There is no greater happiness for a man than approaching a door at the end of a day knowing someone on the other side of that door is waiting for the sound of his footsteps."

And there is no greater happiness for a woman than to be loved, honored and cherished by a such a man.

Poor Jennifer Lopez. She may have fame and beauty and riches, but she will never be one-tenth as happy as Nancy Reagan was (even if she does stay married for more than a year this time around).