There are people who have mastered the art of survival. Give them a knife and matches and they can find their way in the woods for days. Somehow they forage for food, and create a shelter out of timber. They don't even seem to rely on self importance to keep warm. They just do what it takes. 

Personally I am not tempted to try it. The only place I've gone camping in the last fifteen years has a cabin and electricity. Not exactly harsh conditions. But neither do I get to see the vistas my son has, when he trudges up a 14er, or hikes the Grand Canyon as he will next December. He sees wildlife that I only spy from a videocam. 

Some marriages seem to travel a rougher road than others. Addictions are as harsh on a relationship as any blizzard. The death of a child can keep spring away for a very long time. Chronic disease can drain the energy from a home like an open window in a storm.

Yet there are couples who have weathered it. One contemporary of my mother nursed his wife for fifteen years without her ever opening her eyes after a stroke. Couples I call wise have come out the other side of alcohol and drug dependency. Others do not quit even in the face of financial devastation. Something besides cash keeps them together. 

The other day I heard a woman say that five years ago she would not have believed that she could be so deeply in love again, and so cared for. I do not know the path she and her husband walked, nor the dark places they crossed. But I rejoice that they are on the top of their own mountain.