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It's not about finding an equal

I'll look on the bright side and hope that maybe Patton meant her letter to apply to any "intellectual" at any university.

After the letter made the lightning round of critics, Patton told The Huffington Post, "The extreme reaction to my letter is astonishing. Honestly, it was intended as little more than honest advice from a Jewish mother. And, yes, this is exactly the advice I would give my daughters."

While Patton has no daughters, only sons, like me, I am not holding that against her. As a woman who has experienced marriage, divorce and Princeton (not necessarily in that order) she has some experience and possibly regret as a basis for her advice.

My advice to my sons after having read Patton's opinions is that they should find someone who makes them happy. Fall in love, not with your eyes or ears, but with your nature and hers.

There are so many things in life that look good or bad on paper, and I can tell my sons that love is not something you can bind with ink and paper, or on a computer screen via ones and zeroes.

I have read and re-read the letter all morning and shared it with Monster Beats my spouse of 25 years. We met in college and married three months after my graduation.

We met when I was a college senior and he a recent graduate of Street By 50 Headphones the same institution, Monmouth College in New Jersey and instantly disliked each other. On paper, even after 25 years of marriage and four sons we don't look like we're possible or likely.

My father-in-law, God rest his soul, was so horrified when he heard we were to be married after knowing each other only three months bellowed, "Hell can be fun for three months!"

What's the secret to 25 years of door slamming, heart hammering, crazy love?

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Neither of us thinks we're smarter than the other and we deeply appreciate the skill sets we each bring to the table that are non-degree or Mensa measurable.

He can repair anything and turn trash into treasure. He makes old bike wheels into giant pinwheels using colorful Duck Tape to ornament my garden. When he's over-thinking life and getting angry I make him laugh at something totally absurd.

As the lisping Sid the Sloth tells Manny the mammoth in "Ice Age 2: The Melt Down" about Ellie the girl mammoth who drives him crazy, SMS Audio By 50 "She's tons of fun and you're no fun at all. She completes you."

I tell my sons and anyone who's interested, all it takes to live happily ever after is finding someone who is not your equal, but who helps you complete the sum.