the rix mix

Feeling depressed today. But this story cheered me up:

Divorcing couple's house divided by wall

"The wall separates the living room from the staircase on the bottom floor of the Taubs' richly decorated, wood-paneled home, a three-story brown-brick rowhouse whose market value has been put at $923,000 by the city.

She gets the top floor, where the bedrooms are situated, along with the kitchen on the second floor. He gets the living room on the first floor and the dining room on the second floor. So that they don't run into each other on the second floor, the door between the dining room and the kitchen is barricaded on both sides."

One of the couple's children is staying with Dad; three others are staying with Mom.

Over 20 years together & it comes to this. Even a dummy like meeself can see that they are still married, & will stay married as long they they reside under the same roof. Divorce won't change anything. The wall is merely a physical manifestation of the relationship they had before it was constructed. They just divided the prison into two cells.

I was in a relationship that separated into territories a long time before we actually broke up. We cared least about the areas of mutual, intimate accomodation - the kitchen, bathroom & bedroom. I kept our apartment for awhile after we split, & the most remarkable incident during that time happened when a new girlfriend, without my even suggesting it, joined me in the large, old clawfoot bathtub. That had never occurred with my ex-cohabitant in the previous 12 years we'd lived there, & I think of it whenever I'm inclined to feel nostalgic about those years.