If there's one thing I've learned after seeing people get together, stay together, or get divorced, it's that what it looks like to the rest of us is rarely the case.

The rush has been to blame Arnie, that Maria is some poor, suffering powerless widdle woman.

Does anyone really believe that's ALL there is to this break-up?

When one is pledging to stay with someone through thick and thin, they should mean it. They don't, for the most part, but they like the FEELING that they're bonding with someone forever. That earns them a sense of security which often leads to them taking the situation for granted, and to the end of that situation.

People shouldn't make promises they have no intention of keeping. Of course it's hard and everyone KNOWS it's hard, and in this day there is no one forcing anyone to marry. If you don't really want that committment, you shouldn't marry, just stay a couple...but someone pushes the other to marry, and the answer, when you get right down to it, is "Because." It's an undefinable emotional THING, and people who think with their emotions instead of their brains make these decisions, and for the most part, in my experience, they're the ones who regret it. But since they were the one who forced the issue...

None of this is about the topic, but that's not all the thread is about now.

 “The more elaborate our means of communication, the less we communicate.”
 Joseph Priestley