From the mouth of a diner

I was having lunch yesterday at Marcy's. Steak & cheese sandwich with green peppers and onions (kind of stretches my diet bit). The usual, full house, a seat at the counter, I was reading, music blaring, people talking, the owners and staff working their tails off and having a good time about it, all systems normal. I was immersed in a story from my copy of Asimov's SF Magazine when a voice from a conversation in the booth behind me said something that stood out to me clear as a bell, "it's good to get that first divorce out of the way". The table was occupied by young adults, possibly from the nearby art college, many of the students come into Marcy's, part of a mix that helps make up the atmosphere of the place. Obviously I had no context of the conversations that the statement came from, just odd how it seemed to stand on it's own and it implied to me that maybe in the youth culture, divorce has become a probable outcome of a first marriage. I hope not. I'm not naive about divorce, there are several among my family, friends and acquaintances. How many conversation have we been in where someone says "my ex use to..." Hey, it happens, all kinds of reasons. I don't know the statistics but it seems I've heard that divorces have increased dramatically in the last few decades. I just think it's sad if today's young adults thought of a marriage as a temporary arrangement.