Al and Tipper Gore are calling it quits after forty years of marriage. They've been through so much together, yet they have grown apart.

After a media frenzy that included discussions about why long marriages end and why it shouldn't be so surprising that people want to "find themselves" as they grow older, everyone turned their attention back to the BP oil spill.

We were talking about Tipper and Al and long marriages with some friends the other night. They've been happily married for about twenty years, but both had been married before. They told us that leaving a spouse (even one you don't like) is a wrenching experience, one that can't be imagined without going through it.

Perhaps because we have had a strong forty-two year marriage, I can't see going off on my own to find out who I am at this stage of my life. I'm pretty clear on that subject anyway.

Peter and I often tell people that we have had to stay married to each other because nobody else could put up with either of us.

Al and Tipper probably don't need to worry about that.