Whoa! Been there, done that, and it was such an awful period of my life that it's still painful to look back on. I hadn't heard of the movie, but I will probably want to see it. I'm hoping it will be therapeutic and not just depressing.

Yeah, the sixties were an awkward age. The Vietnam War had driven a wedge between the generations, and caused us to question EVERYTHING our parents tried to teach us. Our general feeling was, if they care so little about us they would send us off to die in this godforsaken place, then they must not have our interests at heart, and everything they say is suspect. So we thought we could rewrite the book on marriage, religion, health, politics -- you name it. Someone even did write a book called "Open Marriage," and although I didn't read it, in those days, you felt you didn't NEED to read it because everyone was talking about it. And a lot of us thought, "Hey, I could go for something like that."

For my then-wife, it meant promiscuity and something like sexual addiction (though that term wasn't invented until sometime later). For me, it meant going outside the marriage to obtain emotional intimacy and support. Oddly enough, I got that from a lesbian friend! (I'll call her "B.") This relationship was never physically consummated (B wouldn't hear of it.) but she was affectionate in various non-sexual ways, and verbally she gave me the kind of unconditional love I craved and had never gotten anywhere else.

And, oddly enough, this made my wife jealous, although she couldn't see anything wrong with the sexual acting-out she was doing. We got divorced. But I ended up in a good second marriage (the courtship was gently encouraged by B) which is not, never has been, and never will be "open" in the sexual sense. My wife and I have continued to be friends with B and her partner. They live in another state now, and I don't see them so often, but I'm sure I will be a loyal friend "as long as we both shall live." So I guess the story has a happy ending, although it hasn't ended yet.

Looking back on the open marriage era, all I can think is, how can we have been so stupid?