[Darris McNeely] The divorce announcement that I read in the paper said this, "We no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our life." And so, with that announcement ends the 27-year marriage of one of the richest couples in the world today, Bill and Melinda Gates, who publicly announced their pending divorce a few days ago. Bill Gates is the co-founder of Microsoft Corporation. Together, he and his wife founded the Bill and Melinda Gates, Charitable Foundation, dealing with humanitarian works all around the world. So high profile public couple in the United States, and certainly known all over the world as well, tragically, sadly ending a 27-year marriage.

Why? Beyond this statement I don't know, you don't know what happens with couples and marriages that go, in this case, multiple years, decades and then they divorce. It's sad. There's three grown children. But there's always sadness, complications, and tragedy, and particularly with this divorce with the multiple billions of dollars, that they will separate and unwind of corporations, companies, and businesses. It'll keep lawyers busy for a long time and help their lawyer retirement funds in the process.

But I find it sad when anyone after multiple decades of marriage divorce. They call this today great divorce, people who are in their later years after multiple years, divorcing. It's always gone on. There's far too much of it. And I think about it because I've been married now nearly 48 years myself to one woman, my wife. And it's in the later years that we've had richer experiences, deeper conversations, and made memorable connections. In those later years, as we build on the foundation of our early years, the first 27 years of our marriage, we were just learning the ropes. We were just getting started.

It's been the 20 years since, 20 years plus, that we built on that foundation. If you're in that situation, you completely understand what I mean. And I hope you do because that creates a very rich and a full life. You have to deal with the problems. You have to work through issues and challenges all along the way. You have to determine that you're going to remain married, you're going to remain faithful when all the other factors of the relationship are intact and in place.

And again, I recognize that sometimes there are certain severe problems such as abuse, where the marriage is untenable and it can't remain together. But so often, divorce is because of a lot of other factors that could have been solved had people been willing to work at it. And I hope you will. And I hope that you can get to the point in your life where you've got 30, 40, 50 or more years of marriage to be able to learn, and develop, pass on wisdom to your family and to other generations and not have to go through what is called a gray divorce.

There's a line from a poem by Robert Browning that I always think about. I used it at the wedding of one of my sons. It says, "Grow old along with me. The best is yet to be, the last of life for which the first was made." It''s a beautiful poem and great wisdom in those lines, it's been made into a nice song as well. But the last phase can be the best. It may take some work, but it is worth it.

That's BT Daily. Join us next time.