Falling Divorce Rates: Love Or Economics?

In the wake of Prince William's marriage and the Schwartzenegger/Shriver split comes an article on CNN by Lamar Clarkson stating that since 1996, divorce rates have been  dropping dramatically.

This leads me to conclude that historians really know us better than we know ourselves.  But first, about the study.

Reasons cited for the decrease in divorce numbers include getting married later, that is at ages 26 and 28 instead of 20 (women) and 23 (men).  Another factor, the study "Number, Timing, and Duration of Marriages and Divorces: 2009," reports is increased education. 

Apparently divorce among those with only a high school diploma  is higher than among college educated couples.

And a final factor is the stubborn singles--those persons aged 25 to 29 who have never married.

The bad news?  For women aged 60 to 69, the divorce rate has actually gone up.

All of this brings to mind a statement once made by historians Will & Ariel Durant in their book "The Lessons of History".  I was in the throes of my second marriage when I read it, so I suppose that's why this particular statement so impressed me.

Regarding divorce the Durants observed that throughout history whenever the economy was bad, the divorce rate went down.  In cases of economic strength or stability, the divorce rate went up.

In this time of economic downturn, then, regardless of all other statistics, based on the Durants' observation alone, we could anticipate the kind of statistics found in the report. 

Oprah Poetry Contest--And Outrage

The Oprah Poetry Contest has got me thinking about the difference between poetic styles. 

My sister writes with hope.  I write with outrage.

I judge.  Point fingers.  Look for failure and injustice and shine a spotlight on it.

Once a professor asked me, "Do you only write poetry when something happens?"

No, but it can certainly set me thinking.  I wrote about the young man who hanged himself in a staff bathroom after spending three days parked in a hospital hallway. 

I write about homelessness. Bad marriages and endings that are also beginnings. 

I write reality.  I don't try to make it nice; I just report it.  Sometimes my anger gets in the way.

Rita Chretien:The Importance Of Books In The Survival Kit.

The other day I was in a hospital cafeteria reading to pass the time.  My husband was in surgery.  He was supposed to be out in half an hour, and an hour had already gone by. 

Time flew by when I had my nose in a book.  When I stopped reading and took to pacing, time dragged like an unpopular bill waiting to pass through parliament. 

Reading must have been a great help to Rita Chretien, the woman stranded alone in the Nevada backroads, her van stuck in the mud, out of gas and the battery dead.  She survived 49 days on prayer, a little trail mix, water and by reading books.

Reading probably helped her break those maddening cycles of futile thought we all go through in desperate situations. 

It must have taken her mind off the horror of it all; a woman stranded, with only God and a minivan as her refuge. 

I know one thing for sure--from now on, I'm keeping a few good books in my car.  Ones I like a lot, or ones I've never read but always wanted to.  Ones I'm curious about, and ones that have been recommended to me by friends. 

Mrs. Chretien had a Bible along, too.  That makes for a lot of hours of reading.  Especially when you get in the beget section.  They tend to be pretty long and tedious. 

But D.H. Lawrence once said he loved the Bible; it was like a long series of stories, all passionate and powerful, full of sex, violence, intrigue and adventure. 

That's the human side of it.  But there's something else there, too.  God's eternal love and infinite patience with the human condition.  I'm sure that most of all, that one book helped Mrs. Chretien survive.

The Winning Team

Tonight the Canucks put the Predators to bed.  It wasn't a pretty win; they should have won by a much larger margin.  That fact alone makes the Predators a team to watch next year.

I watched slices of the game from St. Paul's cardio out patient ward.   Here, a different kind of team operates under Dr. Ron Carere who oversees approximately 50 life saving angiograms and angioplastis a day. 

Thirty years ago we could not have concieved of a person going into a hospital in the morning, having their arteries cleared and expanded with stents and going home the same night. 

The procedure would have been like something from "The Twilight Zone".  Let alone the whole process leaving no scar other than a small slit in the groin area.

Yeah, the Canucks saved their chance to win the Stanley Cup today.  And like the crowds on Robson Street, I'm delighted. 

But what I'm even more thankful for is the other winning teams out there.  Teams who make a life saving difference every working day.

Canucks, Mrs. Mike Fisher's Guitar And The Predator's Win.

The morning of the fourth game in the Canucks/Predators series, Mrs. Mike Fisher AKA Carrie Underwood got on CKJR radio and publicly bet that her husband's team would win the series.  A pretty bold suggestion since this is the first playoff series the Predators have played in.

Not only did America's darling, Mrs. Carrie Fisher say they would win, but she BET they would win. 

Ms. Underwood took up JR Country's challenge saying she would present JR Country with a signed guitar if the Predators lost.

That night the Canucks won game four of the series, and it seemed a pretty safe bet that Jimmy Pattison who owns the radio station would soon have a guitar signed by the very popular country music star hanging in the studio.

But last night when the Canucks should have been ready to seal the deal, the Predators hit the ice with all the zeal of knights errant out to win their lady's favour. 

So I ask you--is the guitar, and Mrs. Fisher's honour the reason the Predators have suddenly come to life?  And will they be able to maintain this fire on ice intensity that they exhibited in defeating Vancouver 4 - 3?