The monster will bring renewal because there will be nothing left to do but start again and make it better. For thousands of unhappy people, this has actually worked. Divorce has liberated them, given them a chance for a startling rebirth, a chance to correct debilitating mistakes made early in life and restabilize children shell-shocked from the marriage wars. Divorce can save lives. Divorce can even, ironically, save families.
Divorce can be an astonishing blessing.
In the last few years of my marriage, that seductive voice intensified and my fantasy began to harden into a plan. I watched with a clinician's interest as my older sister struggled out of her marriage and set herself up in a tiny cottage with a breakfast table just big enough for her and her little boy. I spent countless hours reading up on divorce, sitting cross-legged on the floor of the library because I didn't dare take the books home. I talked with friends, talked with my counselor. I plotted and planned.