…of the world, that is.
But sadly, it is the end of their marriage. I’m not trying to be insensitive here, and I’ll admit that I gasped a little when I read the headline too, but we are all going to be OK! I promise.
We do not need to mourn. Jen and Ben do, however. We do not need to give up on finding love. Jen and Ben will likely move on and find another love to fill the gaping voids left in their hearts, and graciously incorporate them into their family. We should do the same, don’t you think?
We do not need to give up on our own relationships and marriages. Jen and Ben would want more for us. They would want us to keep striving to make our marriages work the way I’m sure they did.
Jen and Ben are not dead, but their relationship is. They are two lovely people whom apparently many of us depended on to make it to the end, but who apparently failed us.
We relied on them to feed into our own idea of a perfect relationship. One that could never be torn apart by…well, probably not just one thing in particular, but I could never say for sure. People grow apart, realize they want different things, and fall out of love all the time. This is a thing that actually occurs. After all, we do have a divorce rate of around 50% in America, and in Hollywood I’m sure it’s much higher.
But wait; don’t they know we put our hopes and dreams into their picture perfect 5-member family? No, probably not. They are probably just normal people who are very busy, professionally, along with a string of other problems the rest of us have who just couldn’t make it work.
It’s so weird; it’s like they’re human or something.
They likely spent the past few years working on their marriage and came to some sort of rational and mature decision to separate and divorce. Knowing them (and I assure you I don’t), they are doing everything right. I would expect nothing less of Jen and Ben but to put their children’s health and well being first. And I’ll assume that would very much include their desire for us, the world, to stay the fuck out of their business. Pardon my French.
I’ve seen dozens of twitter feeds asking, “What now?”
[/nextpage] [nextpage title=”Page 2″ ]Well, now I hope you’ve all had time to stomach a meal in order to feed your body the energy it needs to carry on. I hope you’re all able to sleep soundly. I hope none of you wakes in a cold sweat with nightmares chasing you one after another after another of why Jen and Ben broke up, or what they used to be, or what they could have been.
Because my friends, it’s over.
And there’s a plethora of wonderful possibilities that could come out of this! Ben and Jennifer Lopez could get back together, which means we could resurrect “Bennifer.”
Or maybe Jennifer and Michael Vartan will reunite for an Alias movie and they’ll fall in love all over again.
The four of them will spend Christmas together each year, sipping eggnog while their blended families expand and they rise above to become the new role models for modern divorced families everywhere.
Anything is possible. But there are two things you will always have of Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck that no one can EVER take from you.
1. Pear Harbor
2. Daredevil
Shhh…This too shall pass…
Alison Chrun is a wife and mother of two boys who is receiving her M.A. in Marriage and Family Therapy. She is the author at Appetite for Honesty where she writes about self-development, relationships and the highs and lows of parenting. You can also find her on Facebook and Twitter.
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