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I often doubt the whole marriage thing. It seems pretty pointless and wrought with difficulty and unmet expectations. Hell, in the past 2 years I've met so many unhappy married people that it's ridiculous. Men and women are bored or disgusted with their mates. Some are just flat out exhausted.

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A friend an ex co-worker of mine is going through a divorce with the woman he's dated or been married to for 10+ years, basically since college. He found out she was sleeping with the tennis pro of the country club at which they belong, and also that the pro gave her an STD. They have two young kids. Sweet.

When lamenting what a horrible bitch she was to a mutual friend of ours at lunch one day, my friend - recently divorced himself - said it takes two to tango and from what he heard she said he drank too much and was emotionally vacant, so she strayed. This made me appreciate the complexity of the situation - he DID probably drink too much from what I saw, he always made me make a beer run on Fridays at about 2PM for our small office and would get absolutely loaded when he could, and he really was hard to connect with on any sort of real level. You could go to lunch with him and he'd just sit there and stare straight ahead. It's like we were an 80-year-old couple. So I can see the genesis of how this marriage fell apart, and that his lack of contribution to the relationship was likely the reason for the infidelity. Messy.