Better than sex

I've got three sons and, as they reached the appropriate age, my wife and I decided it was my job as the father to have "the talk" with them. Even though it was a serious and VERY challenging topic, I tried to keep it light. I've ended this talk with each of the boys by telling them, "Just remember, when anyone tries to tell you something is better than sex, they're lying."
And that keeps coming back to haunt me, because now I know I was the one who was lying. So what's better than sex? Spending a life with someone. Sharing the birth of children, the joy of love, the adventure of travel and buying a house and the fright of being in debt and taking kids to the emergency room, of praying with your whole heart and soul while a son is in the operating room with a burst appendix and a collapsed lung, of coming home from war, 40 pounds lighter, up a dark staircase in eastern Germany, a frantic wife meeting you on the landing with hugs and kisses you can't count, of being held while you ache with loss for an old friend, of holding her while she aches with loss for her mother, of leaving again for far off places, but always coming home to the same hugs and kisses, the same love.
Sex in there somewhere, and it's a wonderful part of it all, but it's a small part - a small part of that shared love, that shared adventure, that shared life.
I don't understand divorce anymore. How do you unshare a life built on all those things? I couldn't do it.
This concept will become important, I think, as the country goes through hard times. If you have this shared life, your faith in each other will help you through. We can make do with so much less than we have now - I know my family did when I was growing up. We may not want to go back to that, but even though we were poor, we didn't always know it. That's because we had each other.
I still have my job. I still have my mission to get my boys through college. When that's done, I'll choose another mission in life. I can do this because I have faith, and because I have this shared love with my Vera. We will get through anything.
So if you're out there and you don't have this, I can only give this advice. If you've been spending your time looking for someone to have sex with, you've been going down a false path. Look for someone to take care of, because that's the best way to find someone who will take care of you. Share your life with someone.
OK, so I got corny. I'm away from my family here in Cairo for 6 months and I miss them dearly. But my wife and I are still sharing the same life, the same love. I know I'll go home to those uncountable hugs and kisses.
I'm a lucky, blessed man.