In addition to being a snapshot of one man's fear and doubting A Grief Observed contains some wonderful musings on marriage at its best, as God intended it. I especially like this bit . . .
For we did learn and achieve something. There is, hidden or flaunted, a sword between the sexes till an entire marriage reconciles them. It is arrogance in us to call frankness, fairness, and chivalry 'masculine' when we see them in a woman; it is arrogance in them, to describe a man's sensitiveness or tact or tenderness as 'feminine.' But also what poor, warped fragments of humanity most mere men and mere women must be to make the implications of that arrogance plausible. Marriage heals this. Jointly the two become fully human. 'In the image of God created He them.' Thus, by a paradox, this carnival of sexuality leads us out beyond our sexes. (p. 62 in the 1989 hardcover edition)
Lewis' phrase "entire marriage" I take to mean a complete or fulfilling marriage. Even though his marriage to Joy was all too short, he considered it "entire" and not truncated.
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