Relationships and Going Places

With Tommy gone, without my head wrapped around his caregiving, my nights on the couch are starting to fray. I'm getting lonely. I admit that evenings out to theatre, to dinner, to the event I just ordered tickets for, are becoming more appealing. I'm managing my dislike for nighttime driving by using taxicabs. I'm adjusting to getting gussied up as the sky darkens. To prevent head- and eye-droops as the evening wears on, I take catnaps. Slowly, I’m peeling this small and stubborn body off the couch. more »

Senator David Vitter: A bill to prohibit certain abortion-related discrimination in governmental activities; a bill to prohibit family planning grants from being awarded to any entity that performs abortions; a bill to impose admitting privilege requirements with respect to physicians who perform abortions; a bill to require states to implement a drug testing program for applicants for and recipients of assistance under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program; a bill to clarify eligibility for the child tax credit; a bill to prohibit discrimination against the unborn on the basis of sex or gender. more »

Joan L. Cannon writes: Maybe what is required is for our culture to teach us how to know when the occasion legitimizes a free response. Tears still are the most common, even the most allowable demonstration of emotion, and nowadays some men can let them fall without feeling utterly shamed. On the other hand, joy, gratitude, tenderness, empathy seem to have built-in limits even now. more »

One reason for this is what we might call the divorce echo effect. Older individuals are more often in remarriages, not first marriages, and remarriages have long been more likely than first marriages to end through divorce. People who have been divorced in the past are more willing to divorce again in the event a marriage becomes unsatisfying. In contrast, some proportion of those in first marriages are unwilling to divorce even if they have an unsatisfying marriage. more »