As Obi Wan Kenobi said in Return of the Jedi: all truths are from a certain point of view. Who’s right or wrong is between the involved parties.

As Mike points out, in the break up of a marriage, each side believes that they are the aggrieved one. The friends of one will wonder how the other could have left such a wonderful person while the friends of the other will wonder why he or she stayed with him or her that long. It really is an no-win situation and the only reason anyone wants to know “the other side” is simply for gossip. And we all love to gossip to one degree or the other.

The point is, that as far as we, the one’s who have no personal stake in this private matter, are concerned, it doesn’t change the reality of Lynn needing to change her retirement plans and keep the feature going. Why their marriage broke up is irrelevant. The fact is, it did break up and Lynn is doing what she can to get on with her life. She doesn’t owe us, the readers or her colleagues any more than that.

This is exactly what I was getting at a few weeks ago in that other long discussion about Lynn. I didn’t feel it was my place to publicly air her personal life in explaining why she had to un-retire, just suffice to say that it was, indeed, necessary. She was looking forward to retiring, but her world was suddenly turned upside down. She had to do something. This was, in her mind, the best option.

I’ve been divorced now for about a quarter of a century and get along quite well with my ex, whom I see about once a year at family gatherings, in part because the kids are grown and are financially independent of us, in part because she is happily remarried and living on the other side of the Atlantic, and in large part because, with time, we began to recognize that we each played a regrettable role in the debacle.

I recommend all three solutions, particularly the one that involves an ocean. (Though, if you have a choice, the Pacific is even wider.)

That said, I’m willing to eat a little crow on having thought Lynn was simply keeping the strip going out of hubris. However it happened, she finds she can’t retire. Fair enough. I can’t either. Good thing we both like what we get paid to do, isn’t it?

For me, because of this interview, I feel I understand more why Lynn decided to un-retire.

Then I find out there might be more than one side to this story (Gasp… who knew?!) only to be told that (even though nobody asked) they were going to graciously not tell their story, yet they were shocked SHOCKED that it was being discussed blah blah blah. Whatever. Best of luck to Lynn – sorry your ex is a bum. (Or, is he?!) The rest of you story owners, good luck.