The Break-Up

Say it ain’t so, Al and Tipper. 


After 40 years of marriage, Al and Tipper Gore announced their separation on Tuesday, saying their decision to split was “a mutual and mutually supportive decision that we have made together following a process of long and careful consideration.” 


The announcement came as a shock to us all. But the Gores’ decision not only left us Americans surprised, it left us depressed. 


Whether or not you agreed with their politics, the marriage of Al and Tipper was one we were all rooting for. Despite Al’s trying political career, Tipper’s depression, and their son’s life-threatening accident, the Gores seemed solid and genuinely head-over-heels for each other. I mean, these two wrote the book on happy families, literally.  


Ellen McCarthy of The Washington Post said it best: 

They’re like the couple down the block with the lush garden and the annual Labor Day cookout. The pair who are always power-walking together and drinking wine on the front porch, who make you nudge your husband and say, “See? I want that.”

And now this happens and we’re all devastated. More accurately, we’re all terrified. We’re all thinking, “If this seemingly perfect couple couldn’t make it, how can we?” Or as McCarthy wrote: 

It means that maybe marriage isn’t something we can conquer. That you can have all the necessary ingredients — romance, good morals, mutual respect and a healthy family — and still see this precious thing, built over decades, crumble in the end.

I always preach to my single friends that the key to a successful marriage is to be best friends first. Friendship, along with a lot of prayer, is what I’m banking on to maintain a ’til death do you part kind of love with Edd. But Al and Tipper certainly seemed to be BFFs and that wasn’t enough for them. What if it isn’t enough for us?