1287 Surviving Marriage

Marriage is in steep decline in America, and half of those that get married are getting divorced. A lot of this has to do with how late in life people are getting married: rather than young immature couples growing up together and are therefore conforming to each other, now by the time they decide they want to get married, they’ve already developed full personalities & proclivities that usually aren’t going to change. The best strategy in such cases is to do a better job of matching to begin with but even then marriages change over time: what used to align will ebb & flow. The idea of throw-away marriages is abhorrent. As difficult as it was to find a partner the first time, it’s much more difficult as you get older. The chance of finding someone who is both compatible & attractive is very low, and made worse by dating apps that promise endless options but in reality offer few at all, if any. The best advice is to survive the marriage you’re in but it seems a lot of people don’t know that the secret of a successful longterm marriage is to make adjustments and wait it out, which sometimes last for years: the stress children, middle-aged crazies, affair temptations, evolving sex-drive, etc. Let the momentum of your marriage carry you through these times. The only legitimate reason to divorce is if your spouse finds you contemptible or vice versa, other than that, any storm can be weathered.