“So,” said Gabrielle Rifkind, our marriage counselor, “money seems to be such an important topic that we probably should dedicate a whole meeting to it.” “No,” said Lauren and waved her hand as if to chase away a tenacious fly, “we will never agree on anything regarding money.” “Besides,” Lauren continued after a brief pause, “I do not have any problem any longer having all this money, being rich.” I said nothing.

Addendum (December 11, 2014)

And a step closer to our divorce, to be sure. I rediscovered this piece completely by chance, for my ex-wife is of no interest to me any longer, but it is comforting to see that my belief that money was at the bottom of our divorce is well founded. If our marriage counselor put it so succinctly, it must have been close to the core of our troubles, if not at their very core. In fact, our marriage started breaking apart as soon as my ex-wife became closer to her family, from which she was estranged since her youth. Given that the entire family is poisoned by money, there can be no surprise that our marriage got poisoned by it in a jiffy. If there is any reason to remain concerned about that unfortunate family, it is my two children with my ex-wife. Willy-nilly, they are now part of it. And I will never be able to forgive myself such an incredible error in judgment.