On December 11, my wife and I celebrated 41 years of marriage. Forty-one years!  Wow! Where did the time go? With all we've been through, I stand in awe that this wonderful woman has stayed with me through all those years. Who would have thought? And yet, here we are.

I am amazed that we are still married given the fact that we are both children of the sixties. We had long hair and wore outrageous clothes. We marched and protested, yet we some how believed in our country. I served in Vietnam war (1969-70), and she stood by me and supported me while I was overseas. We had our difficulties and I made some serious mistakes. Yet we stood by each other through it all. Even though we are part of the "me" generation, we found a real satisfaction in also being "we" oriented.

We have two marvelous children. Our daughter recently completed her B.A. degree with honors--and this at Rollins College! She hopes to start law school in August.

Our son has started his own business and seems to be doing fine. He's even found a wonderful woman who has agreed to marry him in May.

I have had a wonderful career teaching in college. And despite my musings about making movies after retirement, my bride has supported me in that effort. Her response was simple: "As long as it doesn't cost us any money, you just do anything you want." Actually, that's a ringing endorsement.

I know how much she wants to travel when she retires. So, I'll make sure that her plans are successful as I attempt to be the nation's greatest screenwriter during the 2010's and 20's. Hopefully, I can make enough money to support her wanderlust.

Forty years is a long time. Yet, somehow, it has seemed so brief.  Only yesterday, we were in college enjoying fraternity and sorority parties, going to the drive-in to "watch" a movie, freezing in the stadium at football games, and staying up late trying to make the homecoming floats look perfect. Then we took a deep breath and -- oops, it's forty years later.

I have had a great life to this point. And my wife has been the single most important part of that life. Now we stand on the edge of a great future together making plans for our fiftieth anniversary. I hope to take her back to Hawaii where we spent our real honeymoon (on our second anniversary).

So, stay tuned for more exciting things to come!