Divorce A La Catalan

On the weekly food section in the newspaper I read regularly, there's an article today about the merit of a restaurant, together with a couple of photos, one of them showing the front. Very impressive looking country house style building in beautiful rural settings. I noticed too they display one of those blackboards on a stand, on it is the announcement that reads, in Catalan: 'Salo de bodes, bateijos I divocis' which in English says: 'Salon for weddings, communions and divorces'.

I am sure the owner, or whoever responsible for the advertising, thought themselves very modern, humorous and possibly, even clever.

However generous I tried to be, the kindest word I could come up with to describe them is, frivolous. No doubt many of you would not agree with me, but personally I see nothing funny about a divorce, any divorce, under whatever circumstances and however right a decision is for both parties, as an event to celebrate about. How do you toast the host/hostess, 'Here is to you, happy divorce!'?

It's logical to presume that most couples, if not all, had once been in love with their now Ex's. Even if the divorce is the only course to take, even if it's desired by both parties, even if there are no children to consider, and even if one or both are terrible and most unsuitable people to stay together, the divorce is to me still an unfortunate outcome and a sad solution. Not to say that separation or divorce does not necessarily solve the problem that led to the end in the first place. Being unhappy in any relationship is not always the other's fault.

Unless, one or both of them, had never loved the other for a single minute. Or the marriage was formed for convenience of some kind, political, financial or even moral. In these cases, when the marriage had later served it's purpose, I guess the divorce then in effect signifies a new beginning not an end. There had also been surprising happy endings, that the couple did fall in love, through mutual discovery and understanding, sometime or some years after the wedding!

In this day and age, one of the most notable human behavior is intolerance. People get angry easily, about everyone and everything. Whenever any conflict occurs, they just blow up, throw in the towel, or call it quits. Few take the trouble to analyse the cause and seek solutions.

I don't see crisis being synonym of failure.

Tags:Divorce,Crisis,Solutions