MONTH IN REVIEW
It has been a productive and exhausting month. I spent most of it doing a divorce/child custody trial in a "local" suburb (how local can it be if it takes two hours to get there?) and part of it preparing for and enjoying my friend's wedding, an interesting study in contrasts.
Obviously client confidentiality prevents my giving too many details about the trial. It involves some rather nasty issues of child abuse and religious bigotry, and once again confirms my belief that most couples who get divorced break up for reasons very similar to those that brought them together in the first place. In this case, my client was initially attracted to her husband because he was so good with kids. Now they're fighting over custody of the kid.
I don't believe in divorce, except where one of the 4 A's is involved (Abandonment, Abuse, Addiction, and Adultery), but I seem condemned to make a living from it anyway. Most of the cases that don't involve the 4 A's could have been prevented if the parties had learned manners in kindergarten. Which leads me to wonder: if everything we need to know, we learned or should have learned in kindergarten, what do we do with people who got "social promotions" from kindergarten without learning that stuff? Every time I come to a 4-way stop, I seem to be catty-corner from somebody who flunked the part about taking turns, for instance. Since testing is now in and social promotion is out in elementary and secondary school, why not take the same tough stand in kindergarten? It would certainly improve the quality of our politicians.
On the other hand, my friend's wedding was surprisingly encouraging. He's my age, she's a bit older, and it's the second time for both of them. He has spent years building up a reputation as a partyer, but in the section of the service he wrote and spoke, he talked about lifetime commitment with a seriousness that amazed me. Given that she is somewhat older than he and wears a pacemaker, one has to think of lifetime commitment more seriously than kids getting married ever do. Anyway, they were both beaming. I've seen them both almost every day for two years, and I've never seen them happier.
Obviously client confidentiality prevents my giving too many details about the trial. It involves some rather nasty issues of child abuse and religious bigotry, and once again confirms my belief that most couples who get divorced break up for reasons very similar to those that brought them together in the first place. In this case, my client was initially attracted to her husband because he was so good with kids. Now they're fighting over custody of the kid.
I don't believe in divorce, except where one of the 4 A's is involved (Abandonment, Abuse, Addiction, and Adultery), but I seem condemned to make a living from it anyway. Most of the cases that don't involve the 4 A's could have been prevented if the parties had learned manners in kindergarten. Which leads me to wonder: if everything we need to know, we learned or should have learned in kindergarten, what do we do with people who got "social promotions" from kindergarten without learning that stuff? Every time I come to a 4-way stop, I seem to be catty-corner from somebody who flunked the part about taking turns, for instance. Since testing is now in and social promotion is out in elementary and secondary school, why not take the same tough stand in kindergarten? It would certainly improve the quality of our politicians.
On the other hand, my friend's wedding was surprisingly encouraging. He's my age, she's a bit older, and it's the second time for both of them. He has spent years building up a reputation as a partyer, but in the section of the service he wrote and spoke, he talked about lifetime commitment with a seriousness that amazed me. Given that she is somewhat older than he and wears a pacemaker, one has to think of lifetime commitment more seriously than kids getting married ever do. Anyway, they were both beaming. I've seen them both almost every day for two years, and I've never seen them happier.
posted by WiredSisters at 8:20 AM
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