Tom Storck had a great article in CetT in which he used the advice handed out by either the Dear Abby or Ann Landers column as a source of insight into American culture. I admit to being a compulsive and frequently appalled reader of Dear Abby. Today’s column connects with the ongoing discussion of annulments we’ve been having here.
"Unhappy in Nebraska" describes her sad situation: she’s thirty, married to a guy in his mid-50s with whom she has an 8-year-old daughter; she wants to have more children, he’s had a vasectomy; she wants to go back to college, he doesn’t want her to. Etc. She has tried to ignore her feelings, been to counseling, taken anti-depressants, and now wants out. She concludes: "At what point is it OK to make a decision you know will hurt someone else just for yourself?"
Sez Abby (now the original Abby’s daughter, as you may know): "Because counseling and medication haven’t helped, the time is now, while your husband can still find a woman whose values are more similar to his own than yours are."
There is a whole, whole lot of what’s gone and going wrong with marriage and for that matter with our culture in general in this exchange.
–Maclin Horton
I just read “Unhappy in Nebraska” and thought,
Yup, and they’re about to get a whole lot more unhappy after Colorado takes them to the woodshed again in a fond remembrance of ‘black friday’.
Ah yes, it’s good to be a Buff watching my Nebraska booster inlaws eat it one more time.
_____________________
As for the dear Abby article,
The US populace has long since ceased thinking with their intellect, but have chosen to follow their fallen nature in submitting to their lower appetite.
We are a nation of children.
“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But, when I became a man, I put away the things of a child.”1cor.13:11
I don’t want to talk about football. [insert extremely dispirited "Roll Tide" here]
Maclin,
Look at the bright side, you could be Texas A&M.
An old client of mine is an Auburn grad who when it comes to Alabama follows in the footsteps of Ezra Pound’s Bertrans de Born
There’s no sound like Auburn / Alabama opposing,
No cry like the battle’s rejoicing
When our elbows and swords drip the crimson
And our eagles ‘gainst elephants rush clash.
May God damn for ever all who cry “roll tide”
Time was when I would grant to Auburn fans that they were less obnoxious than Alabama fans. But it turns out that was only because they were losing.