If Gores can't stay married, who can?

Al and Tipper Gore's announcement this week that they are separating after 40 years of marriage shouldn't bother me, but it does. I have not been a big fan of Gore, whom I met briefly in 1987 or '88 when he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination (he dropped out not long after I met him at a campaign speech at Barton College). Nuclear disarmament was his cause then, and he was as earnest about it as he is about global warning now.

It had appeared to me, through Gore's vice presidency and the 2000 presidential campaign, that Gore had a solid, stable marriage with a good woman. They had faced some adversity in their lives and had been each other's support in crisis. They had enjoyed some success as well. The famed kiss when Tipper introduced Al at the Democratic Convention in 2000 seemed overdone but somehow endearing as well. The Gores were close in age to me and my wife, and they had married just a year before we had.

While political and celebrity marriages often aren't meant to last, the Gores' seemed to be the exception. Some analysts are saying their separation is typical of the difficulty of maintaining a relationship over a period of decades. Even couples who get through the early years of adjustment, frustration and temptation might not be able to swim the latter years when marriage might seem less purposeful and goal-oriented. The Gores said they had "grown apart."

I find myself still looking forward to a future that is tied inextricably to the togetherness we've known for 39 years, but maybe I'd better be cautious about any signs of divergent interests and emotional detachment. I'd like to get beyond whatever it was that tore the Gores apart.