From Joseclaudio Santana, Tenerife, Canary Islands:

I am concerned about the opinion expressed by a reader in California in November's Readers Forum. He advised a husband to leave his wife because she had become addicted to chat lines. This opinion is dangerously extended nowadays and should be counteracted.

Why should that worried husband who is dealing with his wife's addiction to
long-distance communication leave her and relocate? Don't we realize the thousand
inconveniences, trouble for both partners and their children, stupid and hateful quarreling, and greed over economic matters that a traumatic divorce can cause? Should this addicted wife not be given an opportunity to rehabilitate herself, and to look for medical, family and many other kinds of support?

I suggest that we do not become divorce promoters or pay too much attention to those
who try to persuade couples to break up their marriages. There is too much pain, discomfort, hatred, upheaval for children, and real drama, which is hidden by those optimists who hold out the false, ridiculous, sometimes ill- intentioned conviction that divorce is a solution. Let's take care of our partners and seek non-traumatic solutions to our problems. Certainly there are many unexplored ones.