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I have read 2 novels recently where contemplation of divorce was part of the plot, Walter Percy's The Thanatos Syndrome and Garrison Keillor's Liberty. In addition, an essayist I usually enjoy, Sandra Tsing Loh, chronicled her own divorce in The Atlantic Monthly and questioned whether lifetime monogamy was really all that praiseworthy. This unfortunate set of reading led to nightmares and conversations with Elaine along the line of: "Sure our marriage seems swell now, but what can we do to keep the odds in our favor?

We didn't come to any grand conclusions other than the standard ones: keep communicating, spend time together, work toward shared goals, blah, blah, blah.

At any rate, I was primed to receive a spirit-lifting story, and here it is: Those Aren’t Fighting Words, Dear by Laura A. Munson. Munson might have a slight New Age-y vibe, but her story also feels very New Testament.

Ross Douthat's column today that uses Judd Apatow films as jumping off point to discuss the difference between talking the family values talk and walking the family values walk is good. So is Timothy Egan's on the danger of misinformation.