To those who are married,not married and soon to be married read this.

[Mags 112]

You have to admire her dedication, what with the weight loss and all.

Agreed.

Credit where credit's due!

[one...two...tree 2,762]

true or not. i liked the story & agree w/ the sentiment. it is the little things not the material things that matter.

[Mags 112]

I love the white horse a-leaping in the background. I'm sure it is a major plot point.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I love the white horse a-leaping in the background. I'm sure it is a major plot point.

Whoah...I didn't even see that. ####### eye for the straight guy.

[rlogan 2,036]

I liked King Kong but I'm not going to insist people use the movie to guide their lives. I'm not going to get mad at people who advise against using a fictional giant gorilla to emulate just because I like the movie. I can tell fantasy from reality.

The fans of this story really need to lay it on the line and say whether it is OK to lie and deceive people in order to make the common-sense observation that you need to do nice things for your wife - or whether there is better ethics in telling people up front this is a fable.

Why yes, of course it is something extremely vague like the "little things" that make a marriage work.

For example, Ted Bundy - serial murderer of dozens - studied crime magazines to make sure he would tend to all the "little things" forensically after torturing, raping, and killing the very kinds of girls who were naiive enough to buy stories like this.

Bundy's girlfriend had no idea he was a serial killer and there too, Bundy paid attention to the "little things" that manipulate people into believing a monstrous lie.

We can have all kinds of fun with this business of "little things" because it is so vague.

A little tip I used was buying a couple of sacks of lime and a shovel when she demonstrated independent thinking. That was enough of a hint, and she has been a great wife since then.

Ha ha - here's a counterexample too:

Since all you have to do is pay attention to the "little things", then go ahead and ignore the "big things" in your marriage and see how far that gets you.

[SMOKE 1,426]

don't make put on a pink shirt & come rough you up.

[rlogan 2,036]

Busted via the advance search function:

Take a look at what was snipped from the original poster back on April 6, 2009:

(armywife @ Apr 6 2009, 04:48 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

(this was sent to me centuries ago) BEWARE: dont correction me and dont english me cause im not graduation!!! bato bato sa langit ang tamaan ASKAL!

This was sent to her "centuries ago". Well, that is still sloppy citation but better than implying it was sent by someone giving personal testimony.

I asked the poster who worded the OP in this new thread in a manner that insinuated it was genuine where it came from. She didn't answer, and may not have seen my note yet - but now I can ask the decisive question:

Why edit this? Why word it in a manner that so strongly insinuated it was real? Look at the responses it got demonstrating that deception was successful.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

I hate spam that floats around on the internet presented as a real life stories.

Like global warming?

[TBoneTX 45,266]

...where it came from...

Have you searched snopes.com or one of the other truth/falsehood sites? Googled key phrases from it? No clue whether it'll prove fruitful, no man, but try it, si man. Edited July 16, 2010 by TBoneTX

[rlogan 2,036]

Hi TBoneTx

I wasn't aware of those sites, thank you for the tip. I did google the story and there were too many hits to sort through.

I generally do more academic kinds of research and I'm less handy with google-rangering because there's so much garbage to filter through by comparison to peer-reviewed literature.

With this story though, we need a counteroffensive. A wooden stake in the heart of it. An epilogue, second chapter, or more "complete" version.

But the fact is I'm just a wussie and don't have it in me to hurt people's feelings.

[Gemmie 142]

Even though the story is really sweet, I agree with the poster that said it wasn't realistic and actually quite deceptive.

I never really like people giving marriage advice, no matter how long they've been married. That might sound like I'm an ignorant person, but my reasons are this: As much as I like to hear that person's take on marriage and its success, how can I attribute his own lessons to my own? Especially if the person doesn't even know me.

The person in this story learned that the little things saved his marriage (if we're to pretend it's a real story). Great for him. We don't even know from the story WHY he wanted a divorce in the first place. If we're to assume that it was BECAUSE they no longer did the small things to remind each other of their affections, then of course doing so would help tremendously. I can see that in my in-laws marriage (which is breaking down), it's about the HUGE things such as money, intimacy, communication. And even if they were to revert back to the small things, it won't save them. Counselling is more likely to do that. In another marriage, they might each do the little things for each other but might need to work on other things like different styles in problem-solving and money-management.

So when people tell me marriage advice, I tend to take it with a grain of salt and see if I can take use of it. If not, I put it in the same category as this story; sweet but not-applicable.

Edited July 16, 2010 by Gemmie

[Fandango 1,439]

Big deal, the story's sh!t, but I don't understand why rlogan is so obviously up in arms about it.

[acaglumac 1]

this is a cute story but things can be really complex. like me and my wife love each other n its pefect when we dont fight, but occasionally she gets violent n hits me n gave me a black eye and made my head bleed etc n cheated on me by making out w 2 of my best friends. also threatened shell divorce me n make me get deported! so even though we have wonderful little things, i am going to divorce her. i gave her so many chances n she didnt change. i feel devastated i have to do this.

[Moonandstar 6]

this story was posted last year when i was new here in VJ

it made me cry reading it.. now sharing this story again

to all...

touching and inspirational...

P.S

I am happily married and soon to be mommy!

Haha, i laughed after i read this, thinking it was you who had been married for 10 years, and then saw "married for 8 months and 26 days" in your sig.

Nice story.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

this is a cute story but things can be really complex. like me and my wife love each other n its pefect when we dont fight, but occasionally she gets violent n hits me n gave me a black eye and made my head bleed etc n cheated on me by making out w 2 of my best friends. also threatened shell divorce me n make me get deported! so even though we have wonderful little things, i am going to divorce her. i gave her so many chances n she didnt change. i feel devastated i have to do this.

Wait until you get your ten year green card. Then you can do whatever you want. No pain, no gain.