I just caught a whiff of an NPR story about a trend where people are getting divorced when they are in their fifties. Why? I only listened to bits and pieces of the article but I kind of understood what they were talking about. In a weird kind of way. I cannot write coherently about this tonight but I experienced a kind of freedom in my fifties that I didn’t expect but enjoyed greatly. As I began that decade, the beach urchins were largely independent, my parents were elderly but healthy, and I wasn’t gainfully employed but I had a vibrant career doing non-profit work. I spent that decade going to school, traveling back and forth to the Yooperland to deal with sick and/or elderly family members and eventually working at my current bonus job/career. But. During that entire time, I never felt compelled to divorce the GG. He was right there with me for the good, bad, and ugly, and he tolerated me traveling in and out of town on my own steam whenever I felt like I needed to, not to mention all the trips the GG himself made up there to help The Commander after I started working at my bonus career. That decade of my life had its ups and downs but I can’t figger why on *earth* would I choose that particular time of life to get divorced from the GG????? ???? Women have enough money to do what they want nowadays, the radio said. That’s cool and yes I do have a wee bit of my own money but kee-reist, isn’t it better for a couple to combine their money…

And who the heck would I hook up with if I divorced the GG? Who else would I hike the local trails with? Who else would drag me onto the North Country Trail? Would I still be able to hang out with The Uncly Uncle and all of my in-laws and their children at Houghton Lake?

C’mon people. Shake a blanket while you still can!

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 19th, 2016 at 6:25 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.