Divorce and the Seahorse

Strong words fail to describe the havoc caused by the betrayal of the marriage vow. Of being left to fend for yourself and four equally bewildered kids who sadly realize that father has loved a woman other than their mother.

The number of broken homes are increasing at an ominous pace in this country. I'm told that the ones greatly affected are our overseas contract workers. Lawmakers debate long and hard over the bill proposing to legalize divorce as a way of solving marital problems ranging from incompatibility to infidelity but no amount of convincing polemic will give divorce a better face. Divorce or separation is never a better solution.

In the book Surviving the Breakup, an overwhelming majority of the more than 100 children interviewed by a psychologist Judith Wallertein and Joan Berlin Kelly preferred the unhappy marriage over divorce. In the other words, children whose parents divorced never favored the separation.

Divorce is such a complex matter, according to American anthropologist, Paul Bohannan. It involved strained emotions, child custody, conjugal property, changes of friends, work, community. And may I also add that it affect one's spirituality. That is why advocate the preservation of marriage at all cost. We provide scientific and biblical balance article to helps couples prevent the dismemberment of the home. We give high fives to couples who endeavor to build happy and healthy marriages, and make divorce a dead option. We believe in Christian marriages that view love as as intentional act, where I covenanted with my mate to live sacrifically and faithfully for her “till death (not divorce) do us part”. Please consider also that the only biblical ground for divorce is infidelity. And his, according to Jesus, was allowed by Moses “because of the hardness of your hearts...but from the beginning it was not so” (Matthew 19:8, 9, emphasis mine).

Now, what does a seahorse have to do with divorce? A lot. The seahorse is a facinating creature. I saw my first one among the sea grass while swimming Jolo as a kid. The Paradise Philippines seahorse, Hippocampus comes, is endangered and is being protected in places like Camotes and Bohol islands in the Visayas. For centuries seahorses have been credited with potent magical and medicinal qualities by the Chinese. If there is anything “magical” about the seahorse, is it the fact that seahorses of all sea creatures, are monagamous! If one member of a pair is fished or dies, its partner stops reproducing for a prolonged period, or perhaps does not “marry” again. Another facinating thing. It is the male seahorse the carries the female eggs in his pouch, fertilizes them that number about a thousand, and undergoes a full pregnancy!

If only the Greek God Neptune was no myth, I could have begged him to confine gallivanting spouses to the sea, be a seahorse, and stop divorce!