Dear Diary – July 21, 2026

It takes more than love

Anda and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary yesterday. We were thinking back to our sessions with Bill Sasso, who was the minister of the Unitarian Universalist church in Carbondale at the time. During our pre-wedding counseling, Bill asked us a question. After filling out our survey question form, Bill looked up and said, “Okay, you guys. You have nothing in common, and you are complete opposites. What is going to keep you two together?” At the time, we thought it was a rather stupid question, and we both answered with “Love will keep us together.” 

After 25 years, after being through so much together, we have learned that it takes much more than love to maintain a healthy marriage for a quarter century, especially with two people who are so different in many ways. For us, our marriage has been a spiritual journey to become better people. We have had to compromise; we have had to learn to compromise and see what it takes to change course. We have each served as a spiritual mirror for one another, helping one another to honestly look at ourselves and our character defects. We have had to be willing to admit our shortcomings as human beings, and more, we have had to be willing to make an effort to correct our shortcomings. 

We have also learned to accept one another for who we are, realising that you can’t change the fundamental essence of people – we are who we are, with the good and the bad. It has taken much more than love, and after 25 years, we are going strong as a team, in our partnership, in our respect, in our love, and in our spiritual journey to becoming better people.