When I teach Pride and Prejudice, I always make it a point to talk about marriage. My hope is that, by talking about marriage in a positive, thoughtful way, it helps to inspire students to recognize how much effort it takes--the manifold sacrifices required--to make a marriage work. Many of my students come from broken- or blended families, while others come from the same sort of nuclear home life that I enjoyed. It can sometimes be a little awkward to talk about love and romance and marriage with a bunch of fifteen year olds, but it is always one of the things that I personally enjoy. See, I'm a fan of the institution, what with it making up a very pleasant and enjoyable last twelve-and-a-half years. That doesn't make me an expert in the concept, necessarily. I'd like to think that I've given Gayle more happy days than sad ones, more reasons to laugh than to cry, but I know that my record isn't perfect. I've tried to be a better husband--one of the primary r...
Personal musings of Steven Dowdle