My son recently sent me an article informing me that the Marine Corps divorce rate has increased, by almost 4%, during the past year. Naturally, the author of the article attributed the increase to the strains of the military deployment. I don’t think so.
Our society has become so used to all of these excuses for failed marriages that anyone can pick an excuse du jour. The reality, however, is generally that our society simply has no idea what marriage means.
When I speak with couples dealing with a troubled marriage, they readily admit they didn’t have a clue of what they were getting into. By the time reality kicks in, they are ill equipped to define it. They encounter overwhelming struggles and internal conflicts that they can barely maintain a balance. I’m talking about really good people who were, and are, sincere about joining together for a lifetime. I’m not talking about those who got married with the notion that if it didn’t work out, they could always just divorce. In my opinion, those people are very rare. But marriage baffles those who go into it without proper preparation.
The Marine Corp brings in some of the best people from our society and trains them to be loyal. So it is not because of a lack of loyalty that the divorce rate has gone up. It is because they just don’t know how to be married successfully. As far as I’m concerned, the importance of teaching basic survival principles in our schools correlates to the happiness and stability of our society. Premarital education will do wonders in fixing the divorce rate. And to those Marines and all others who endure the tragedy of divorce, I offer my heartfelt sympathy.