Dear John
Cpl. Samuel Kramer wrote to Yank magazine in September 1943 to claim the shortest “Dear John” letter ever received in the European Theater. His letter was duly published, to the amusement of countless readers: “Mr. Kramer: Go to hell! With love, Anne Gudis.”340
This “loving” couple met in 1942, before Sam was posted to England. There followed a stormy three-year correspondence, reaching a climax of sorts with this letter. They continued writing, however, often with similar acrimony. Over time, amazingly, the situation improved. In June 1944 Anne would write, “All I can do is tell you how very much you mean to me and how I long for the day when we can be together again.”341 After the war, they did come together and were married in 1945. A long, successful marriage with three children followed.
This is a story of perseverance that should inspire any married couple. Relationships do become stormy at times, and one or both partners say things that wound the other. The lesson here is clear: keep talking. In this case, the couple kept on writing, which eventually accomplished the same purpose. They worked through their self-inflicted wounds to recapture those things about each other that attracted them in the first place. My mother’s advice was to never go to sleep on an argument. This can sometimes be difficult to do literally, but the basic advice is the same: keep on talking until you resolve the problem. And every time you take the first step to reconcile, remember that Jesus himself is on your side, for in every situation, “Blessed are the peacemakers”(Matthew 5:9).
For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.
—1 Corinthians 14:33