Advice

I ran across this piece of advice on Mighty Girl, one of my regular reads:

To choose a spouse, find someone who is flawlessly kind but has an incredibly strong backbone. See also: Marry him only if you will be proud when your child turns out just like him.

I was first struck by it because it's an apt description of Husband, so I patted myself on the back. But then I thought of other husbands I know--of family friends and run club buddies--and realized that it held true for others as well. I tested the theory further by seeing if it applied to me and those friends' corresponding wives, and while we are definitely kind and have backbone, I don't think those are our most distinguishing characteristics.

So what kind of wife should a husband choose?

Other Mighty Girl advice from that post:

Don’t make assumptions, and don’t take things personally.

What you give is what you get. When you predict that negative things will happen, they do. The opposite is also true.

Plan less, do more.

Always have a valid passport.

Stop picking at that.

I've also been contemplating that simple mantra, "Do no harm," after reading about it in a book recently.