5
ChAPtEr 2
Some Basic Background
Marriage... a master, a mistress and two slaves, making in all, two.
—Ambrose Bierce
Over the last couple of decades the phenomenon of divorce for
many Americans has turned into something akin to a rite of pas-
sage. Various milestones in individuals’ lives have always been
around. The first tooth, first communion, first diploma, the first
time you went “all the way,” first job... you get the idea. For
my father’s generation, one of the biggies was going off to fight
World War II. For my generation, it was the draft and Vietnam.
These are milestones that irrevocably change the way a country
and its individual citizens define themselves. Nowadays, for the
lives of at least half of our populace, the Big D of divorce has