In the novel 1984, George Orwell’s “protagonist Winston Smith works at a propaganda department for the state, called the ‘Ministry of Truth,’ where inconvenient news can be discarded down a ‘memory hole.’” When I married, I married for love. “People marry for a variety of reasons and with varying results. But to marry for love is to invite inevitable tragedy, ” wrote James Branch Cabell.
Tragedy by definition is painful. One way to avoid the pain is to avoid the memory. During and after each of my two marriages, I knew the woman quite well. I had lived with Vicki for six and a half years and Diana for over twenty. Who were these significant others and how did they affect my life?
Having studied Talmud during childhood and the Congress of the United States intently from 1974 to 1990, I have decided to tell myself (and thus the “printed word”) what I told the government (at least in the first iteration) when I completed my first security clearance form in 1978. In 1978, the form’s purpose was to make it possible for me to read CIA reports (which I was surprised to learn were well-written).
Now, six months away from my 70th birthday, I feel impelled to commit myself to full disclosure. Reality compels me to admit that fullness is not achieved all at once, but at dribs and drabs. Here is the first round of partial disclosure (to be followed perhaps by more complete disclosure–don’t touch this dial.
My first wife
My first wife was Vicki Ruth Cohen. We married in Rockville, Connecticut in the summer of 1969.
++++
Second wife
My second wife was Diana Marie Bass. We married in Alexandria, Virginia in the fall of 1981.
++++
It is better to marry than to burn
