FallenAngelina
Well-known member
Given his age and your presumptive age (and mine!) I would grandfather this into the "acceptable discreet liaison" category. It is perhaps difficult for younger people to imagine a time when pretty much all long term married couples did not have divorce as a viable option and instead tacitly agreed to allow (usually the man) to have other loves. Spencer Tracy was married his entire adult life to a woman we don't even remember, while Katherine Hepburn was accepted and even celebrated as his love spouse for decades. Camilla Parker Bowles is a more controversial figure, but she has been known by many as Prince Charles' love spouse all along - and now she is poised to become the Queen of England. Whether one agrees or disagrees that affair love-spouses are ethical, the truth is that this kind of relationship has existed for millennia. It's only recently that we advise people to be "ethical" and separate because they can. Up until very recently, the only viable social and financial option was to remain married and show discretion with one's love spouse. For thousands of years, this has been the most "ethical" and the kindest option to the monogamy dilemma.
So to judge this as a workplace affair is rather off the mark. To infer that the ethical thing is to turn away is to misunderstand the voluminous social history of discreet love spouses living in tandem with legal spouses. Whether the situation is satisfying for the particiapants remains a different question.
So to judge this as a workplace affair is rather off the mark. To infer that the ethical thing is to turn away is to misunderstand the voluminous social history of discreet love spouses living in tandem with legal spouses. Whether the situation is satisfying for the particiapants remains a different question.