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"The other day at a meeting, a coworker of mine mentioned that his grandparents had been married for 76 years. They were also an arranged marriage, which was common in his country, particularly back then. He added that he supposed it worked for them, as his mother was one of ten children. We all chimed in with &amp;quot;Can you imagine?&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Wow, that&amp;#039;s amazing!&amp;quot;, to which my coworker quite matter of factly replied that they had to make it work, as divorce just wasn&amp;#039;t an option in those days. It just wasn&amp;#039;t an option.  Sounds sort of barbaric, doesn&amp;#039;t it? And I&amp;#039;m sure for some women with some men, it was. I do have to wonder, though, how many relationships were helped by that rigid rule of society. What if divorce just wasn&amp;#039;t an option? What if you had to find a way to make it work, to live together productively and in peace and as partners in a lifelong journey? Really, is that such a bad thing? When Peter and I were several years into our marriage, people used to ask me how we managed to last so long, and stay so happy. I used to tell them that part of it was because we just never considered any other option. We were in it for life, and to make each other happy. Simple, when you think about it. Not so simple in reality, though. And here we are now, opting out when generations before us wouldn&amp;#039;t ever have considered it. If someone had taken that option away, would Peter have decided to work things through, instead of checking out? Or would I be stuck wondering if he was &amp;#039;working late&amp;#039; again just about every weekday night \u2013 for the next thirty or forty years? Maybe options aren&amp;#039;t such a bad thing after all. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/relationships/dating-marriage/a44781/when-it-wasnt-an-option-1907/>