My friend who is a divorce lawyer says, “Most marriage failures are not the result of infidelity, substance abuse or in-laws. Most marriage failures are the result of selfishness.” When I was in the 6th grade our class read a book of short stories about survival.  One of the stories had a profound affect on the way I viewed marriage. It was the story about a boy and his mother in a cabin, in the woods, as they struggled to take care of his sick father. The story was set some time in the late 1800s.  The boy and his mother did not have enough money for food.  The father was delirious with fever, the crops had not come in, the situation was dire.  The boy’s mother sent him to the woods, and asked him to cut some vines.  When the boy came back with the vines, the mother wove them into several baskets.  The mother didn’t want to leave the sick father’s side, so she sent the boy into town, to sell the baskets, and use the money to buy food, and medicine. The boy came back with enough food and medicine for a few days.  The mother sent him to the woods to get more vines, she wove more baskets, and the boy went to town again to sell them for more food and medicine.  At this point in the story it was revealed that the mother was pregnant, very, very pregnant. A week later the father came out of his delirium to find his wife beside him with a new baby girl, medicine and some hot soup.  While he had been ill, and his crops had failed, his very pregnant wife had http://www.mcleodandmore.com/2014/05/28/how-the-story-about-the-lady-and-the-baskets-made-me-a-better-spouse/