Twenty years is a long time to set a habit, and I knew my husband as a placid, mild-mannered man. He never raised his voice, or, God forbid, his hand, to any human or animal that I had ever seen. I knew he had been a captain in the IRA before we met, and although I was occasionally curious about the part he had played in our cruel war, I was largely content to think of my husband as a harmless soul. I knew of the way that other women were treated at the hands of bullying husbands but I never saw their misfortune reflected as my own good fortune. Perhaps that is the way it is when women marry men whom they have not chosen themselves. They had no hand in making the match so they never consider themselves lucky. Perhaps those who choose their partners can see the other’s good qualities more clearly and will therefore forgive their faults more easily. Although I wonder if twenty years might erode such idealism. Perhaps it is better not to fall for a person’s good points in the first place, then have time expose them as hollow charms.
What do You think about Recipes For A Perfect Marriage?
