It's interesting to see how this thread has been co-opted as a platform for airing unrequested views on Embers stated meditations on his marriage. It's really nobody else's business. Just because one has thoughts on the matter doesn't require one to voice them.
Of course, I'll now give my unrequested views on marriage.
My parents were married for 73 years. For much of that time it was a combative marriage and they stayed together "for the sake of our children" so we had a ringside seat for daily battles that went on for decades. None of us wanted what they had and frankly wished that they would separate. But in the end, the battles ceased and they came to love each other in the last couple of years.
Surprisingly, three of us kids managed to find good long term marriages that weren't toxic in the least. The other two did not do so well.
I've been married twice. Both marriages were unsuccessful, but the friendships that initiated them survived the break up and I'm close friends with both exes. Wife #2 is staying with us through the Holidays and plans to move up here to be close to us. I bought my townhouse from Wife #1, who had intended it for her retirement home, but events changed that. She had wanted to give me the townhouse as an amends for how she thought that she had treated me back when we were married, and I worked through that with her because I saw things differently, and wasn't buying into her sense of her "guilt". We settled on an agreeable price that she would accept. We talk often and do the occasional trip together. When I'm in LA, we spend time together.
Marriage should not be a life sentence. I don't care what some man made religious cant decrees. If the marriage is soul sucking, it's not a marriage worth preserving. If your partner is not your best friend, good luck with that, because ornery critters like human beings are never 100% compatible and life throws both flowers and rocks. You don't have to agree on everything, but you do have to have respect for each other. Everything else is negotiable.