You're right Caroline.......
altho' I could have just said "paradise".
I drew a lot of flack 33 yrs ago when I married my husband because he was "italian" (right off the boat so to speak), from a vastly different culture and way of life. We were married after only knowing each other 4 months and even my own mother gave the relationship 6 months (especially since he was in Italy for 1 month during that time). But we fooled 'em all!
Funny thing is all our friends who married after us (having done the whole datings for yrs, then long engagement before marriage) have all divorced and we're the only two still married to each other.
However the big thing was we followed HB's three golden rules in choosing our mates.
We also were committed to "change" which is an essential aspect of any relationship - not changing personality but rather adapting to changing situations and doing whatever was necessary to support each other and make the relationship work.
Brings to mind the old saying :"There is none so blind, as those who will not see"!