Modern Love: To Stay Married, Embrace Change

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Brian Rea for the NY Times

On April 23rd, the New York Times Modern Love column ran the first serial of Wedding Toasts I'll Never Give. "To Stay Married, Embrace Change" is a piece of Toast 2. (It's what's known as the old-timey nurse chapter, minus the old-timey nursing.) Here's the opening:

A couple of years ago, it seemed as if everyone I knew was on the verge of divorce.

“He’s not the man I married,” one friend told me.

“She didn’t change, and I did,” said another.

And then there was the no-fault version: “We grew apart.”

Emotional and physical abuse are clear-cut grounds for divorce, but they aren’t the most common causes of failing marriages, at least the ones I hear about. What’s the more typical villain? Change.

Read the rest here.