…[Tammy] Wynette was a forerunner of a trend that has, according to new research, taken root today. One hundred and one family lawyers, interviewed by the consultancy ï¬rm Grant Thornton, concluded that intolerance ”“ that is, boredom ”“ has become the greatest threat to couples staying together. Inï¬delity, which formerly topped the list of reasons for marriage breakdown, has been surpassed by couples saying they no longer felt in love and had “grown apart”.
As a sign of the times, this appears depressing beyond words. Can we really have reached the stage where an erstwhile commitment to love and to cherish until death do us part has come down to so casual and seemingly frivolous a reason for walking out on the union, and quite possibly children, too? Have the past money-obsessed, self-indulgent decades really created such narcissism that we will not put up with a relationship that doesn’t give us perpetual bliss?
I still think Roger Miller was right – he had a song in which he said:
“It’s my belief pride
is the chief cause in the decline
in the number of husbands, and wives.”
Somehow I do not think the Lord God is really considerate of this farce.