Am I a space alien? (We do things differently on Planet Zog)
In today's Private Lives column in The Guardian G2, the dilemma for next week (scroll down to foot of page) is:
My husband wants to leave me. We have two children, aged 10 and eight, and he says he is depressed and only loves me as "the mother of his children" now. He has been working and travelling a lot and was away for most of last year.
He does not want to see a marriage counsellor; he simply wants out of our relationship.
....
I love him but he has been so hurtful to me recently that I can feel myself being pushed to the point of not being able to forgive him for his behaviour. Despite this, I know that we should both try to work to improve our relationship.
He is spending more time with new friends and with people he knew before we got married, including a couple of women. He is seeing a therapist but I feel that this is only making things worse. Can I save my marriage?
And I think 'Why should you want to? Why would you want to stay with someone who doesn't want you and is hurtful towards you?'
Okay, I get that relationships do have phases of badness and tensions and that in some cases it's reasonable to want to work on stuff, though ideally before the point where one partner simply wants out.
But when they've got to that point?
I'm with the Marvelettes - even if there are not Too Many Fish in the Sea (I'm more with the Velvelettes' opinion that finding a good man is like finding a Needle in a Haystack) - 'Don't want nobody who don't want me'.
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And on science and vitamins and 'popular wisdom' versus the detailed analyses of the Cochrane Collaboration: A report saying that certain dietary supplements may do more harm than good has prompted howls of outrage from the vitamin and health-food lobby.