Because of these consequences and financial considerations, most infidelity is not undertaken in anticipation of divorce, though divorce is often the result. It represents at one level a kind of promiscuity that is evident among nearly all animal species. In another respect, infidelity is a uniquely human expression of fear and longing. The search for ideal love is both infantile and a symptom of middle-aged fears. That it most often fails to improve our lives, indeed frequently devastates them, does not dissuade us from trying. Long ago Joan Baez sang, “You go running off in search of the
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