My marriage will stay strong for the rest of our lives.

Dry-stone walls hold for centuries without mortar. What keeps them up is that somebody walks the line each spring and resets the stones that shifted over winter.

Permanence in a marriage works about the same way. It isn't a property the thing possesses; it is the result of small annual repairs nobody photographs.

Promising the rest of your lives is not naive. It is a statement of intent, and intent is the only form the future ever comes in.

The stones that moved this year are usually obvious once you go and look. Most of them go back easily.