You better shop around

Guys are always talking about learning life lessons on the football field. Pshaw, I say. The place you REALLY learn is at the outlet mall or the boutique or the fabric store ... at Dirt Cheap or T.J. Maxx.

Know what I'm talkin' about?

These are the shopping skills to live by:

examine the advertisements,

know what's real quality,

seek out a bargain,

get what you really need,

count the cost.

And here's where the shopping advice gets its best use ... shopping for a mate.

Coach Barlow was telling me the other night that, during the 70s, most every student came from two-parent homes. I lived the 70s. I had not one friend whose parents were divorced. It was another time and another place.

Today, in this place, my favorite people in the world are divorced. I could name them and put them in the top ten. I love them and the pain that has made them who they are.

I've been through hell with them and, like Winston Churchill said, "when you're going through hell, you just have to keep going."

If you want to see that hell live and in color watch "Sixteen and Pregnant." The tears and the trauma are gut-wrenching. There are joys, of course, along with the terribly difficult stuff.

But for the grace of God, I'd have been there...or my daughters.

So I ask my precious 16-year-old friends.

Will you look for flaws and cracks that weren't repaired? (Everybody has some, but some are deal-breakers.) Will you exhaust every shopping place until you are struck by the beauty of the perfect thing? Will you get the most for your money, or will you settle?

Most important, will you only buy the thing you cannot live without?

Because, in shopping for a boyfriend or girlfriend -- a husband or a wife, you need to follow the advice of that renowned philosopher, Smokey Robinson:

Gotta get yourself a bargain
Don't you be sold on the very first one
good-lookin' guys (or pretty girls) come a dime a dozen
try to find one who's gonna give ya true lovin'

True Lovin' ... now that's a priceless thing. Take your time shopping for it.