by Art Redwood

Created on: June 24, 2008   Last Updated: July 02, 2008

Paul (not his real name) was very open, forthright and honest to the fact that he and his wife had an open marriage, The inevitable questions bubbled quickly and frequently, about how his wife felt about their openness, the fidelity issue, and did you feel that you could could still trust the other person within the confines of such an open and exposed marriage.

I must admit, I was surprised to hear that each and every question was answered intelligently, openly, and without any hesitation on his part, and after our conversation, I must confess to having entertained the most briefest of notions myself, that according to Paul, an open marriage seemed to be the perfect way to revitalized a flagging and stale relationship, but quickly put an end to any notion on my part, as I value my life too much to ever bring up the conversation let alone the idea with my wife.

But in the ensuring months that Paul and I worked together, it became apparent that all that shone initially about the openness of his marriage was one sided, I continually heard about his exploits, his adventured and his success with the ladies, and while I marveled at his exploits, little by little, I began to wonder just how open his marriage really was, as in all the time that we talked, never once was his wife's gay and swinging lifestyle mentioned, and slowly it dawned on me, that here was not a truly open relationship, where each partner had agreed that it was OK for the other to meet, date, or even sleep with others, no this just smacked of one lowly individual, that felt the word open meant that he could and did cheat on his wife on a regular basis.

The end to this sad little tale came not long after that last conversation, Paul had come into work this day tired, hangared, and very drawn, I inquired as to why he looked so terrible, and was not all that shocked to learn, that his wife had found out about their supposedly open marriage, and had promptly left him on that very evening, there had never been a true agreement or discussion as to what openness meant in their marriage, it was all just asocial thinking on the part of Paul, and in the end he paid for it, by not only loosing his swinging life style, by also a very loving and devoted wife as well...

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