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youngsters need to build character and to learn that they have to obey.
Two days ago there was quite a quarrel, when Ruth ordered the new
electric stove without consulting David--and on the same day he
discovered that she had accidentally overdrawn the bank account! Neither
one has spoken it, but the word DIVORCE has been saying itself
behind those set lips and those coldly polite faces.
This falling out between David and Ruth represents one general type of
marital conflict. A man and a woman differing somewhat in
temperament--as any two people differ, more or less--find themselves
being hurt by the other's ways of acting. Each allows a sense of
antagonism to grow up. This makes them more ready to resent the next
difference in opinion or purpose. Once started, the feeling of enmity
can grow like a snowball until neither one is willing to believe in the
other's honesty, fairness, or decency. This road leads straight to Reno.
But there are many other ways of falling out in marriage. For example,
there is the experience of Henry and Mary. They had a queer sort of
engagement. They enjoyed each other's friends and had wonderful times
playing tennis and going to shows together. But when it came to
love-making, Henry always felt that he had made a clumsy fool of
himself, and Mary always felt a turmoil of baffled emotions. Their
honeymoon was a ghastly failure. Of course Mary knew that there was such
a thing as sex, but her parents had given her a feeling that the less
people had to do with such things, the better. Her marriage night left
her with a feeling of blind revulsion. She tried honestly to overcome it
through the months that followed, but she had to force herself to
respond to Henry's caresses, and he knew bitterly that she hated the
relation which for him was a deep and urgent need.
In the years that followed they had four children and loved them dearly.
They still enjoyed going out together, entertaining their many friends,
and taking part together in their church activities; but there was a
grim disappointment back of it all, and every now and then it broke out
in harsh words which both of them regretted.
Sexual frustration as experienced by Henry and Mary--or arising from
various other causes--is a factor in many marital conflicts.
Our next example illustrates another type of disharmony. Helen was
really the one who brought about her marriage to William. She was a
capable businesswoman, earning a good
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