Great thread.
We have a very distorted belief system in our culture of what love is... too many movies and not enough wisdom on how to choose a mate that will be truly loving and completely trustworthy and stable for a lifetime.
I tell people to choose their mate wisely because marriage in this day and age is most likely temporary and divorce is forever especially when you have kids!
Feelings are ALL chemically induced by our brains and hormones... and they feel GREAT but in 5, 10 and 20 years those fireworks and wobbly knees when you spy your mate across a room are faded and all you see is the core character of the person you married. And if he or she is now or is then a raging alcoholic the feelings you may have may be a LOT different from those honeymoon days!
Feelings fade but character, integrity, honor, trust and stability is what we want to teach our children to look for and fall in love with because that is what lasts and makes for a lifetime of true happiness and serenity.
Add alcoholism to the already gloomy marriage and divorce stats and it gets downright depressing ... so sad.