Life’s too short to stay with someone who doesn’t cherish you

I spent an hour today talking with a friend who dearly loves his wife of 28 years and is tired of her running him ragged because nothing he does is ever good enough. She always wants more, more, more. To keep the peace he says nothing. I could not live like that.   And to stay with someone because if you divorce they will take everything you’ve worked for your whole life, why do people think they have to live like that?  I say let them take it, consider it a fair parting gift for your freedom.  I consider it an honor when someone mistreats me. Rejection is protection. There’s no clearer exit sign.  On Facebook, gal pal and artist Jane Taylor wrote: “Reminds me of the old folk tale of the fisherman who caught a magic fish that could grant wishes, and first his wife told him to ask it for a cottage, then a castle, then a kingdom...”   Her story reminds me of the wife who complained of no room in their small cottage so the husband moved in the goat and the cow and the chickens and then moved them out one by one. She loved her big place afterward. I wonder if his wife would give permission for him to go on a camping trip to the Smokies with me?