It’s almost always the woman who gets screwed in a divorce.  Apparently, one woman took that concept quite literally.  Melinda Brennan, a 46 year old divorced mother of four from Chappaqua, NY (yes, the same town where Bill and Hillary live) was arrested and charged with prostitution.  Police say Brennan advertised on Craigslist offering to have sex for money with “upscale men.”  (BTW, isn’t that an oxymoron—upscale men paying for sex?)  Brennan, a registered nurse, divorced in April and has been struggling to pay the rent.

I guess it would be easy to kick her while she’s down.  Why didn’t she just move to a less expensive town?  Why didn’t she take a second, legal job?  But what strikes me is the lengths to which some women will go to take care of their children.  I can imagine her feeling like the kids had already gone through enough, just dealing with the divorce.  She probably didn’t want to further disrupt their lives by uprooting them and moving to a new town. 

I certainly don’t condone Brennan’s actions, but I do feel sorry for her.  She must have felt completely desperate to resort to such measures.  Sometimes, divorce really sucks!

According to a recent survey of Americans aged 18 – 29, 30% say that having a successful marriage is one of the most important things in their lives.  That got me thinking—how would you define a successful marriage? 

Most people would probably automatically say that divorce equals an unsuccessful marriage.   But if a long term marriage eventually fizzles out and results in divorce, does that make it unsuccessful?  What about all those years before the divorce when the couple were happy and built a life together?   If a married couple spend decades of misery together but never divorce, would that be considered a successful marriage?  Is it just a question of sticking it out? 

How would you measure the success of a marriage?