Of course long term marriage is possible.
You have both got to desire it and value your marital contract. You have to value your connection more than the need for comfort when things get rough.
There are many examples of very old couples who are happy together. Maybe it was easier for them, maybe it wasn't. Living in traditional, socially sponsored roles can make things easier, I guess, than being a person in a world where your roles and the road ahead of you isn't as defined. But I don' think it's easy for a mother to raise 5 kids with no help, and I don't think it's easy to be a man working his tail off day after day to earn money so your wife and 5 kids can have a decent living.
I believe you have both got to value your connection more than the easing of intense pain and very hard times. In other words, you have to be in love, value that love, and believe in it.
It may be that recent generations have far less tradition to live by. We are more selfish. The world around us is changing faster and more constantly than ever.
What it is to be a man and woman, together or apart, are not defined for us in as clear terms. I suppose we have to either reach back into our pasts, or create something new and believe in it, stick to it.
That being said, I do not know if I am up to the task, or if I wil meet someone for whom I will desire to make those kinds of sacrifices.
Everything is impermanent and does change. Yet, hanging on to the mast, through storm after storm, so you can get to your destination can certainly be worthwhile. If you let go, you might drown ... you might wash up on a beautiful island with many lovely native women ... who knows? Each choice, I think, contains a sacrifice as well as a gain in it.
