Gruntled Center tells us there’s more to the commonly understood 50-50 failure rate for marriages than a simple coin toss. Most first marriages survive, but the divorce rate for second marriages is closer to 60%. Also interesting is the finding that second marriages which make it through the first two years successfully have the same divorce rate as first marriages.
My question is this— Is ours a first or second marriage?
I’m no social scientist, but I would think that it has to be classified as both, and the success or failure of the union would be applied to both first- and second-marriage statistics.
Nevertheless, on an individual level—just like your state of health—statistics and probabilities are virtually meaningless. Whether Bruce ends his marriage or whether my buddy Mike’s
impending third marriage is a success has to do with who they are and the type of partner they’ve chosen. And, in terms of health, no matter how dire the probabilities associated with any particular prognosis, there’s somebody out there who licked just about every disease or malady ever known to strike the human organism. There are even stories of people surviving falls from airplanes, skyscrapers, and mountains.
Perfect. Now I’ve fully prepared myself to go buy my first Powerball ticket.