The author says her job as a freelance writer was supporting both her and her husband? Ouch! Those must have been some lean times indeed. She is a terrible writer, and even if she was any good, this boring tale of artificial woe shouldn't have earned her a cent..

It's not the writer's fault. This would make a perfect Sex and the City story arch, where one of the shallow characters would learn a valuable lesson about love and life only to forget a week later and probably Cosmo would welcome such stories, but why is it published here? Why does Salon keep doing this? Or more importantly, why did I read it? Because I actually enjoy well-written pieces about the complexities of relationships and parenthood, so I start reading them and most of the time, I just end up being angry with the myself for having read the diary of a princess. It's my fault for trusting the editors at Salon. I quit reading everything in the Life section because I had been burnt too many times, but I forgot and fell for it again- for the last time

If you've read a few of my Salon posts, you know that I contribute to the current of Internet ugliness, but sometimes people like you undertake analysis and it reminds me of why I frequent Salon.

I am single and retired on social security. It was a roller coaster ride getting here. However I died and went to heaven when I scored a downtown high rise apartment in a low income housing facility for the retired elderly which was created under LBJ. Now my apartment takes slightly less than half my smallish income. The third of my wages that I once had to spend getting to work has become disposable income.

Anyway, there have been a few romances since I went single in 1974 after ten years of marriage which gave me two fine, successful sons who have themselves given me three wonderful grandsons.

Most of the men I have dated through my single state were well off yet if I was to marry any one of them I estimate that the cost of my maintenance in my present life style would cost around $5,000 a month without the benefits of my low-income qualification status. With Medicare my medical insurance coverage is princely. My prescription drugs prices are incredibly low, as are my doctor's visits.

I also discovered that most men come with a streak of what I term the Mick-Jagger-character-flaw. I once heard Jagger in an interview assert that the thing he liked most about Jerry Hall [back when they were still married] was that she had her own money. How selfish can a guy get get--to be that obscenely wealthy and still begrudge his wife spousal support?

If a man isn't willing and able to support me, why would I even consider marrying him. An old farm saying goes, "If it's on the place you've got to feed it." Most of the men who are seriously wife hunting at my age want a woman to take care of them. My hands are full taking care of myself, thank you.

Whether or not money is "enough" is a state of mind. In some of the priciest neighborhoods even the wealthy can feel poor.

While I agree the premise going into this story (that Ms. Belger didn't seem to know she might someday want a rock of a man and not just one to wear on her hand) is deeply weird, so are people. All the time.

But the biggest deal seems to have been how Joan W. jumped in on behalf of the writer or at least the fact that she seems to have chosen, in the end, love over gold. I think, given the way Joan approaches this, that her defense was more of the outcome than the writer herself, although one can hardly defend the one without at least seeming to defend the other.

They may be great friends. I dunno. But what did it for me, in the end, wasn't that Marisa started out seeming like a clueless kid and seemed to grow quite a bit during the course of the story, but that she made a conscious decision to try and live with her original choice and be happy about it. That may be pretense, but we're all into that most of the time anyway, consciously or otherwise.

As I said early on in my original post, at least she and Paul seem to be happy right now, and that beats the hell out of any number of alternate endings I can think of. Right now. I mean, yeah, we're all gonna die eventually (bigguns, you out there?) but why not try and act honorably and be true to ourselves right here, right now, even if it means we have to accept a different picture than the one we had stuck in our brain from the Year One?

I think -- I honestly believe -- this is what Joan has been applauding a lot more than the not-necessarily-brilliant writing or the fact that Marisa started out stupid (or worse) and that maybe this actually does represent growth.

Hey, it's a thought.

I've been reading and posting on Salon for a while, and this is the first time I've seen Joan Walsh jump in to an reader thread, when it wasn't directly about her or Hilary Clinton! HELLO. Joanie, is Marisa your goddaughter or your niece, or some sweet young thing you are mentoring? Because if that's true, it would be nice to know. Your posts smack of something more than editorial concern.

First law: you put an article out on "teh interweb" and you better be prepared for criticism. You are baring your life to total strangers. If you are a spoiled yuppie princess like Ms. Berger, you SHOULD realize that most Americans (let alone most humans in the world) did not have your sort of incredibly posh upbringing with fully-paid for college, new cars, frequent trips abroad and a Manhattan apartment, all paid for by mommy and step-daddy. Therefore, we tend to react to the idea that you feel so privileged and entitled with a little, umm...distain.

Frankly, before Marisa met Paul, presumably she was already a freelance writer, supported by mommy, and living in her Manhattan digs (paid for by mommy, etc.). The most Paul represented was another mouth to feed. She still presumably had to "support" herself, pay the mortgage & utilities, buy groceries, and so forth.

Is it likely that prior to her marriage, Marisa's parents were doing MORE than just giving her a car, a fine education, trips to Europe and Asia AND the downpayment on a Manhattan studio -- but also very probably giving her a (large) monthly stipend to continue her fantasy of the "life of a freelance writer"? Because otherwise, honestly, this piece of drivel makes very little sense.

Paul's "work with children" is suddenly adequate to make him acceptable? What sort of work? DAY CARE? He's clearly not a public school teacher, or a social worker, or a child psychologist. Day care jobs pay little more than minimum wage.

A quick Googling seems to show that Marisa's "big job" was at some internet startup and she's not even there anymore. They have a son -- whose taking care of him? Has she gotten to stay home and just take on those cool freelance gigs? Or are the Belgers putting their son (who has to be an infant) in day care? How on earth can their meager jobs pay for a Brooklyn apartment (by no means cheap, just less costly than Manhattan) AND full time day care?

This is not the article of a middle-aged woman, looking back on the struggles of her early married years -- it's a woman of maybe 29, recounting some angst she had about two years ago. So they didn't break up .... YET. I am underwhelmed. And I don't envy a guy who is stuck with a pampered princess, even if she has lowered herself to work at a cushy internet "editorial" job for a year or two.

BTW: wasn't this the same Salon that just had some article about the disastrous condition of the publishing industry? I wouldn't be placing too much confidence today on having a publishing job (Joanie: I also mean you!)...it very likely might be gone in a puff of smoke tomorrow. As far as child care jobs; well I read that many unemployed ex-yuppies are pulling their kids out of daycare because of the cost.

The minute the Belger's are unemployed again, I strongly suspect they will be back at each other's throats. You can take the pampered princess out of her pink pretty bedroom in Mommy and Daddy's McMansion, but you can't take the aching desire for that pretty pretty lifestyle out of the girl. Most very spoiled, privileged people I know (women AND men) are very poorly suited to marriage, unless it's to a fellow rich spoiled kid, and the two of them gifted with every little privileged thing they desire by their parents throughout their life, until the parent's finally die and leave them a huge inheritance to continue on with.

So sorry, I do not buy the fairy tale or the happy ending. This marriage is doomed.

Next question.