For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for January 09, 2017

SPOILER

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Kind of sad, in view of what happened in the real lives that these characters are based on…

Maybe. But there were also a lot of marriages in the past that really should have ended, but didn’t because of social pressure.

Divorce has been around a long time.

I read in The Writer’s Almanac on Jan. 5 that it was the anniversary of the first legal divorce granted in America.

It was issued on Jan. 5, 1643 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony to a woman named Anne Clarke, whose husband left her and their two kids to go off with another woman. Some Puritans weren’t all that pure, I guess.

Someone’s going to be sleeping on the couch….

Asked and answered in Alvin Toffler’s “Future Shock” way back in the 70s.

The problem is that a lot of couples don’t have the patience to try to work things out. I’m not talking about SERIOUS problems like abuse, but the good ol’ “irreconcilable differences”. My parents celebrated their 66th anniversary last September, still completely in love; that same month, my husband & I celebrated 31 years. One of my brothers celebrated his 41st anniversary with his bride in December.

No nookie for a while I bet.

divorce is better than staying together when there is nothing but hatred and dislike for one another. growing away from you partner means learning how to let go, if that is the correct behavior.

My parents were married almost 50 years and they hated each other with a passion, lol. some marriage the people grow away from each other.

the ability to divorce would and is a very important aspect of growing. growing up and moving on can be the “right” thing to do

America in the 50’s was a time of illusionary prosperity in America, unless you were a white male. most everyone else was screwed/stuck in a system that didn’t allow for change from the “approved” behaviors. thank goodness we aren’t there again. or are we?

a straight white male at that!

The concept of marriage places an unrealistic demand on folk. People change.. perfect compatibility at 20 does not mean things will be the same at 40 or 60. Fortunately.. for most folk it is not worth changing partners.. the status quo is not “that” bad. But for some they keep searching.. and in vain for that magic.

As my grandmother used to say :" Yer better with the devil ya know, than the devil, you don’t know ! "

I still remember the words of a woman trying to leave an abusive marriage. She was raised Roman Catholic. She looked at her children and said “Do you think God will agree that 45 years is enough?”

You get married in church and divorced in court. It takes two to put together but only one to tear it apart. Not a good deal.

If you have a PRO account (or even if you don’t), I recommend you log into your account at beta.gocomics.com (before the transition), and check your profile (MY PROFILE in the dropdown menu shown by clicking your avatar). You may be surprised by what’s there (may want to change it, like I did). If you change it, I don’t know that the change will be effective after the transition (may want to check your profile again).

John has such a way with words, he shoulda been a poet.

My parents were married for almost 40 years, until my father died at 65. I wish they had divorced. Maybe my father would have stayed sober and lived longer.

Oh what he said is so true, especially since he’s referring to himself as the barge, not her. Right? Otherwise it’s time to kick his rear out of the bed.

The problem is that she’s starting with a false premise. Marriages, on average, never lasted forever. Yes, we can all find one or two people we know who married their high school sweetheart and stayed in love for the rest of their lives. But, they’re so rare that they stay in our memories and somehow we see that as a benchmark for what’s normal rather than something we wish were normal.

The reality is that we all change. And change means broken marriages – even if we started with the perfect partner to begin with.

not the best analogy John

my mother passed in july mom and dad were married for 67 years.

I can answer Ellie’s question. The answer was “no” in real life.

Lynn wrote: Strange to be reading this years after my divorce. It’s as if I was predicting things yet to come.

I’m married 59 years this august 23

Divorce was allowed by Moses for the Israelites in the old testament. That’s somewhere around 3000 to 4000 years ago. While it may not have been socially acceptable in the 1950’s, it did happen.

In the 1930’s the Price of Wales was forced to abdicate in order to marry a divorcee. In the 1990’s the next Prince of Wales (his grand-nephew) got a divorce without raising an eyebrow.

My father told me that all it took to get out of being a husband and father was my name on a piece of paper. I asked what that piece of paper was, and my father replied “Your death certificate”.

It’s odd that Lynn Johnston, who had already been divorced by this point, would write a strip featuring Elly being so naïve about divorce.