The one thing that both the married and divorced have in common is that s/he found some-‘one’ they share or shared a portion of their lives together with. I know that according to varying statistics, about 38% of those married will one day be divorced and of the divorced who re-marry, 57% will one day divorce again. Throw cohabitation in there prior to getting married and the statistics get even worse (topic for another day). So work out the average and basically we have about a 50% shot of finding this so called ‘Neo’ character and living happily ever after in the Matrix.

For one of my good friends, the search was off for ‘Neo’ and she was engaged and married by the ripe age of 21. A common response from others was that she is too young to be married. This may be true when we look at the hard cold evidence these days. In ‘X’ years they might get a divorce following the path of many before them who were once in love. But then again they may beat the odds and go on to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. I personally don’t have a crystal ball, but the fact is they are now married and we are all rooting for them to succeed (well at least I am).

Why? Because deep down most of us want to believe that through the pain it is possible to be happily married, share our life with one person and all that fairy tale crap. Statistics aside, at the start of any more serious relationship, we go in hoping this it - we can skip to the happy ending; that we can stop the search.

Some strike it lucky the first time around, some strike out. Some compromise who they are to be with someone, some remain true to oneself. Some are too afraid of being alone, some don’t mind solidtude. Some stick it out and others just walk away. Whatever the case we try or tried.

We can’t always decide who we fall in love with in life, but I would like to believe we always decide whether it works or not. For lack of knowing what the future holds, we commit or choose to move on. In some cases as with the late goddess Elizabeth Taylor, we move on more than once .  .  . 8 times to be exact.

Just why is it that more than 50% of people are choosing to move on .  .  . is marriage just becoming a façade for the ambivlent? Answers welcomed.

Side Note: It takes two to tango and only one to walk away. You decide.

Supplemental Listening: Bay City Rollers ‘Bye Bye Baby’