Monogomy. Or, Not

Article in the LA Times talks about monogamy:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-barash22-2009nov22,0,158886,print.story. Essentially, we're not really cut out to be monogamous, but we're smart enough to be so with enough effort and there are benefits to society for doing so. Uh, thanks, Mr. Scientist for that bit of revelation--I had no idea of this.

Seriously, it is hard to be with one person for the long haul and I salute those who can pull it off. Even if you do, it seems straying at some point in the relationship is fairly prevalent--after all, people have this thing called "nature" hardwired into them, so that's tough to overcome. Getting caught can be atrocious, though, especially if the spouse wants to capitalize on that misstep to make one's life a living hell. I saw that once with a guy I know who was going through a little rocky period in his marriage--like we all have--and decided on day to walk into a "Oriental Massage" establishment in the small burg of Houston, a town of, oh, maybe five million people. The guy walks in, quickly gets red in the face and walks right back out, embarrassed that he went in to that den of inequity. Well, in little ol' Houston, as he is walking out his sister in law happens to be driving by, glances over and sees her brother in law walking out and promptly is on the cell phone to the sister to report the outrage. Six months of torture follows and then ultimately the divorce and awful to watch him have to endure death by one thousand cuts along the way. I guess the moral to this, of course, is that if you commit to walk into Oriental Massage or one of their one thousand affiliates, go ahead and make the ending a happy one. Life is short and sisters in law and their cell phones are out there lurking.