arry Your Best Friend

ome time ago Baron Von Lodge was the head of a small country near Switzerland known as Lilliland.

A topic that came up regularly at the meetings with the Baron, his chief advisor, Professor Hamblin and his fiancée, Lady Angela of Alpine Castle, was how to build a successful marriage.

The initial concept was, “Whom do you marry? What is the right formula for a long lasting marriage? Is it finding someone yourself, using a matchmaker, having a relative find a mate, being lucky on a blind date, or what?” These are mostly all wrong.

The Professor felt that the best solution to finding the right mate came down to three areas: “1) marry someone with whom you feel comfortable and share common interests; 2) marry someone you like to be near; and 3) marry someone with whom you have common lifestyle goals.

“There are a few more considerations but if you can manage these first three you are in the right place. People talk about happiness, but if the person is an unhappy person before he gets married, it is not expected that marriage will change his personality.

“The marriage relationship should not be taken for granted but should be worked at everyday.

“Early in any relationship, relatives should be introduced because they are often the glue that keeps a marriage headed down the proper road.

“Religion is the cornerstone to a meaningful marriage and should be discussed as needed.”

These were the Professor’s fundamental ideas for a successful relationship. “Remember that success begets success. Therefore having successful relationships with family and friends is important.

“In any relationship the level of expectation is important in that if one person expects the other person to be perfect in every way, that person is not living in the real world. He will soon be disappointed because people are people. Sometimes a mate may drop the teacup accidentally, or forget a birthday card, or leave socks on the floor, or something even more significant, but that is part of life.

“As long as the person is other-person centered rather than self-centered, things have a way of working themselves out for the better of all concerned.”

The meetings with the Baron, Lady Angela and the Professor always seemed to be interesting and timely.