Ramblings from the Garden Route

Apparently we’re in the middle of “divorce season” – more divorces are filed in January and February than in any of the other months of the year.   It appears that during the holiday season many couples evaluate their relationship and make the decision never to spend another (miserable) holiday together again. According to Statistics SA in 2016,  139 512  civil marriages were registered in South Africa,  3 978  customary marriages and  1 331 civil unions .  25 326  divorces were granted. There were more female than male plaintiffs, although males generally divorced at a later age than females. The median age for divorce was 44 years for males and 40 years for females. In 55% of the divorce cases, the children affected were under 18 years of age. With all these marriages breaking up, one has to ask the question: Is monogamy natural for humans?  Here are some interesting facts to consider: In the animal kingdom, monogamy is very uncommon. In fact, many of the species previ

I am fortunate to have lots of fabulous women friends, but it occurred to me the other day that I don’t have any men friends – and I miss that. When I was growing up in a suburb of Durban, in the days when it was safe to be on the streets, all of us kids in the neighbourhood played together. We knew the names of every child in the neighbourhood and usually the parents too. I went to a co-ed primary school and had male friends. In high school my best friend was an English boy. A group of us hung out together at each other’s homes, getting up to all sorts of mischief, but my special friend and I would sit on my stoep, he playing guitar, me singing and both sharing our innermost thoughts with each other. This all went pear-shaped one sunny afternoon when someone brought some cheap wine over, we all got totally blotto, and my best friend kissed me! Since at the time I was dating a Canadian friend of his (who happened to be there), chaos ensued. My Canadian boyfriend punched my friend,