Chattanooga Pulse

Written by Chuck Crowder
Wednesday, 25 February 2009 19:38

A few of my buddies are going through troubling times in their marriages that will likely lead them to an attorney’s office. I’m talking divorce. And that’s not good for anyone-except maybe that lawyer. But a lifelong commitment such as matrimony is a hard pill to swallow in these ever changing times. Someone’s bound to crack at some point. And I for one can’t blame them.

Back when the concept of marriage was “the way to be,” the average adult could expect to be dead and gone by age 50. You married at 14, had a bunch of kids to sustain the “village” and then lived out your 40’s letting them take care of you. That is of course, unless you were eaten by a dinosaur first.

Nowadays, we’re living longer and better than ever before. We’re moving and shaking through careers that lead us from city to city and job to job, we’re upgrading houses every few years, constantly trading in cars and even changing cell phones as often as our underwear. But when it comes to spouses, society still expects monogamy for the rest of our natural lives…and that’s a mighty long time.

Maybe that’s why the divorce rate continues to hover around 50 percent (or higher). Our modern way of life doesn’t expect us to remain the same person we are right now. In fact, if you don’t change with the changing times then you best move out of the way. Nothing these days requires, or even tolerates, indefinite commitment. That’s why we have contracts, leases, resumes and expiration dates.