Old farts should get divorced, too

So the Gates are divorcing.  That’s nice.  I personally understand why people in their 60s would divorce.  Unfortunately, for many, it’s too expensive to get divorced after living together for 25+  years.  I’ve lightly reviewed the numbers when contemplating divorce.  It’s just not in my favor.  Starting over is okay when you’re 35.  Starting over at 65 can be difficult.  Now let me be perfectly clear – if it is a matter of life over death, leave.  If its a matter of growing into different people with different expectations out of life, meh.  Not everyone can grow old gracefully with a partner who also ages well.  Some partners just turn into old farts.  And that’s the real issue in divorce after 60.  Can you live with someone who is beginning to sound like the unhappy old man/woman you hated listening to when you were a kid?  Does your spouse begin every conversation with, “It’s not the way it used to be.”  What idiot switch got turned on?  I hate listening to people talk about the past like it’s some idyllic land far far away.  For some people, childhood was great – food was always served, clothes were always washed, summer camp was the norm.  Kids didn’t watch or listen to the news so they never knew what ugly things were happening.  But when someone gets older, they still think the entire world was normal, loving, and kind in the past.  And I never understood that.  Nothing is free from the uglies of the world.  Never was and never will be.  So why do some people have this bizarre notion that things were better in the past?  And that’s just one thing I don’t like about some old people.  And if you have to live with someone who tells the same stupid story over and over, divorce might begin to look pretty attractive.  It’s not always the big things that make people divorce after 65, it’s an accumulation of all of the petty stupidity that suddenly becomes overwhelming.  Like the garage that never gets cleaned out.