Topics covered:

• Parachute relationships — what they are and why they matter (and why they sometimes crash-land hard)
• “Divorce doulas” — passing the torch, bearing the lantern, and why women are the safety net nobody talks about
• Unhealed men, therapy, and the resignation that keeps people stuck
• The “sorry about us” part — apologizing for your own existence in relationships
• Going from shame about your circumstances to “I’d fucking date me”
• Why the lessons keep coming until you actually learn them

Quotes:

• “I’d fucking date me.”
• “I just keep thinking of a line of women passing buckets of water down — that’s what we do for each other.”
• “I want us to celebrate men leaving unhappy marriages, much like I want them to go to therapy and figure out their shit. Because the result of them not doing that work is that here we go, into more relationships with yet another unhealed man.”
• “One of these days you’re just gonna be like — I’d like a clementine.”
• “You are not here to be a poster woman for the right way to feminist. You are a human being in pain.”

**The Writing Divorce 12-prompt series is accessible for paid subscribers here.

Dana Schwartz’s piece, “Support Group for Broken Hearts, Middle Aged Version,” on the Redacted Substack column.