Your excellent piece touches on a central problem in relationships. Any two people who want to live their lives with each other – whether married or partnered in some manner-often never really have conversations about what their core values are before the relationship begins. Even if these values are touched upon, how often are both people fully candid about the things to which they aspire? When a relationship is new and the sexual chemistry is peaking, few people wish to intentionally throw monkey wrenches into the machinery of that relationship. There is also the additional problem that, while two people may have values which align at the beginning of the relationship, experiences may in fact, change them and caused them to diverge. There are no easy answers, but I do believe that communication all the time throughout a relationship is critical.