The Third Thing by Donald Hall | Poetry Magazine

The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down all boundaries; on the contrary, a good marriage is one in which each partner appoints the other to be the guardian of his solitude, and thus they show each other the greatest possible trust. A merging of two people is an impossibility, and where it seems to exist, it is a

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In our twenties, Johanna and I stared for a long time into our souls and concluded that three things matter to us over everything else:

1. our relationship,


2. being able to honor our curiosity, and


3. giving our children the opportunity to do the same.