"Monkey see, monkey do." We need examples to learn, yet when it comes to GREAT Relationships most people have reported to me that they actually don't know what GR's look like in real life examples. So this project is designed for just that purpose.
The GREAT Relationship (GR) Masters are:
1. Couples who have not only made it long-term, but have made it well show us a certain level of mastery; and/or
2. Couples who demonstrate key GR principles.
13/52 GR Masters: Blind Devotion
While this short film is fictional, the type of love is not. I have known so many of these simple GREAT Relationship Masters who quietly and unassumingly love and serve their partners.
12/52 GR Masters: Patience, Knitting and Shrubs
In this cute ad a young couple talks to an older couple about marriage.
11/52 GR Masters: "Honey, I'm Good" music vid by Andy Grammer
As one Facebook friend said about this video, "So cute! Nothing sexier than a faithful companion :)". True. I couldn't agree more. And that's what these GREAT Relationship Masters in the fun and touching video understand.
9/52 GR Masters: Love & Romance Don't Fade with Age
A college dorm mate of mine, Aldo Edwards, shared the following lovely moment where he witnessed two GREAT Relationship Masters in action:
"I saw an ancient fellow, bent over with age, shuffle slowly, S-L-O-W-L-Y around his table
8/52 GR Masters: What Does 50 Years of Love Look Like?
I've had so many young people talk to me who are afraid of marriage... because how could love really last a lifetime, especially when so many have seen so few great examples of marriage, if they've even seen any at all? As in anything great in life we must study the masters. Stop studying the marriage idiots, folks. Study those who know what they are doing. Here's one example of what love really looks like over the long haul.
7/52 GR Masters: Husband Sees His Wife for the First Time Again
You need to see this video as this this young husband wakes up groggily from anesthesia after yet another surgery to find to his great surprise that he's married to "the prettiest woman I’ve ever seen. Are you a model?" He's further surprised and overjoyed to learn that she is his wife!
6/52 GR Masters: Real Love Looks Like This
In his book Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery, Richard Selzer recounts this incredible exchange between a lover and his beloved: I stand by the bed where a young woman lies, her face postoperative, her mouth twisted in palsy, clownish. A tiny twig of the facial nerve, the one to the muscles of her mouth has been severed. She will be thus from now on.
5/52 GR Masters: 96-year-old Fred Stobaugh's Song for His "Sweet Lorraine"
96-year-old Fred Stobaugh writes a song about his wife, Lorraine—the woman he's spent 75 years with and has just passed away. He then enters it in an online song-writing contest. See what happened...
4/52 GR Masters: Kristian made this birthday video for his wife before he died from cancer
Not too shabby this... Kristian Anderson made this birthday video for his wife Rachel before he died of cancer. It went viral as did their story. I'll let the vids tell their story better than I can...
3/52 GR Masters: Carl & Ellie from Pixar's UP!
A wonderful fictional portrayal of the real life experiences of many GREAT Relationship Masters. Bravo!