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-- Find the middle ground. 'It's all give and take,' says Marlene Critch, a retired hospital director in Tucson. She met her husband Bill on a blind date in 1959. He took her on a picnic with a thermos of gin and tonics; they married two months later.
1. 找到折衷點。“婚姻就得互相遷就。” 亞利桑那州圖桑市(Tucson)一位退休的醫院院長瑪琳•克里奇(Marlene Critch)說。1959年，她經人介紹認識了自己未來的丈夫比爾(Bill)。比爾帶了一水壺的酒，邀她一起外出野餐，兩個月后兩人就結為伉儷。
Flash ahead 50 years. The Critches have raised two daughters in Seattle and weathered his severe heart condition. They swim together each morning, and he reads her children's books when she has trouble falling asleep at night.
一轉眼，50年過去了。克里奇夫婦在西雅圖養大了兩個女兒，比爾患有嚴重的心臟病，但兩人依然相互扶持，不離不棄。他們每天早上一起游泳，瑪琳晚上睡不著的時候，比爾就給她念童話故事，幫她安睡。
Compromise, they say, got them through the good and bad times. Mr. Critch, 75, says he compromised by quitting the Air Force early in their marriage, because it bothered her that he was away from home so much. (Press him for more concessions, and he says, 'Miso soup.')
他們說，妥協和讓步幫助他們度過婚姻中的起起伏伏。75歲的比爾說，他做出的妥協是結婚不久后就從空軍退役，因為瑪琳受不了他長時間不在家的日子。（在我的逼問下，他又說了一樣東西：“日本醬湯”。）
Ms. Critch, 74, says she made her own compromise by agreeing to retire to Arizona, where her husband preferred the climate. (She wanted to stay in Seattle to be close to their daughters.)
74歲的瑪琳說，她做出的妥協是同意退休后到亞利桑那州生活，因為她丈夫喜歡那里的氣候。（她自己希望繼續住在西雅圖，離女兒們近一點。）
'If each person can give 75 percent, you've got 150 percent,' says Ms. Critch. Her husband agrees. 'Many men would call that wussy,' he says. 'But I don't because I value her more than anything else in the world.'
“如果每人都能讓步75%，兩個人就有150%的靈活空間。” 瑪琳說道。她丈夫也表示同意：“很多男人會說這是怕老婆的表現，但我不這么看。向妻子妥協，是因為對我而言，她是這世上最重要的。”
Similarly, Jan and Len Konkel, who have been married for 62 years, long ago made a pact to never argue over anything that wasn't very important, saving their battles for things like how to raise their three children. 'Everything else is minor and can be settled in a discussion,' says Ms. Konkel, 84.
與此相似，簡•康科爾(Jan Konkel)和蘭恩•康科爾(Len Konkel)已經結婚62年。他們很久以前就彼此說好，永遠不為小事而爭吵，這讓他們在如何養育自己三個孩子等方面少了很多爭吵。“除了婚姻，其他的都是小事，都可以商量著解決。”84歲的簡說道。
Her husband, well, agrees. 'I say 'Yes ma'am' and 'No ma'am' a lot,' says Mr. Konkel, 88.
88歲的蘭恩也同意妻子的說法：“我們有商有量的，我經常說‘好的、老婆’，也經常說‘不好、老婆’。”
