'Relationships are like glass. Sometimes it's better to leave them broken than try to hurt yourself putting it back together.' -- Anonymous WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- The inconvenient truth is that most marriages don't last. Neither do most romantic relationships between unmarried couples. That former Vice President Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, sustained 40 years of matrimony that produced four grown children and three grandchildren should be applauded. Instead, many lament their decision, announced this week, to separate. The couple 'gave no hint of whatever hidden turmoil,' CNN reported, 'might have caused their union to crumble.' Why the assumption that there was turmoil? Or that the marriage crumbled? Why not take at face value what the Gores reportedly told their friends -- that they simply have grown apart? 'This is very much a mutual and mutually supportive decision,' the couple said in an e-mail, 'that we have made together following a process of long and careful consideration.' Endings seldom are easy but often are necessary. Our society, though, views endings, especially of love relationships, through a prism colored by resistance to change. So we see the closing of life chapters as negative events to avoid. 'For those of us who have watched political couples over the years, this is sad,' CNN commentator Gloria Borger said of the Gores. 'They are a real couple.' When 'real couples' such as the Gores or actors Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins break up, many lose hope in love and relationships. Take this comment posted by Gail Versluis in response to a People magazine article about the breakup in December of Ms. Sarandon and Mr. Robbins after 23 years as an unmarried couple. 'Sad when they made it work so well all those years,' she wrote. 'The few who made it gave me faith in love for a few. I thought theirs would last. I was not destined to have a lifetime partner, and felt so good about those who really stuck together through the whole endurance.' How about being glad that they made it work so well for all those years? Today in the United States, married couples that make it past the eight-year mark are doing better than average. Only 52 percent will celebrate their 15th wedding anniversary. About 40 percent of cohabitating couples break up within two years. Perhaps we should stop taking 'until death do us part' literally. The best of relationships can die long before those doing the relating cease to breathe. It's not that I'm advocating divorce. That's hard on everyone involved, especially children. Forever, however, is an unrealistic standard for many to live up to. Couples who make it for decades and then go their separate ways are hardly failures in the relationship department. They are success stories. They are far more successful than those who stay forever in loveless, sexless marriages out of fear that the alternative -- being single -- would be worse, and far more successful than those who settle for roommates rather than soulmates. The person you fall in love with today is not likely to be the same person 20, 30 or 40 years from now. Should you stick it out just for the sake of sticking it out if you've tried everything and you're just no longer compatible? Or is it better to end the romantic partnership and keep the friendship? Rather than mourn the ending of relationships such as the one shared by the Gores, why not celebrate their longevity? The breakup of a romance, whether it's a marriage with papers or without, can be a learning experience, an opportunity to grow. It also can be a new beginning. Nothing prepares you better for your next relationship than your last one. 'Never be sad for what is over; just be glad that it was once yours.' Those are wise words from an unknown author. If more of us could take those words to heart, perhaps there would be fewer broken hearts. Rhonda Swan writes for The Palm Beach Post. E-mail: rhonda(underscore)swan@pbpost.com. 