Too much water under the bridge?

[stormygirl]

When someone lists "too much water under the bridge" as a reason for divorce, what does that mean to you?

 

I see it as resentment or a grudge they can't let go of.

 

To me the water is always flowing - good times, bad times, what comes under the bridge starts upstream with actions - loving gestures, arguments, what have you.

 

You can change what water goes under that bridge whenever you want. Make it all sparkly and good from here on out, just watch it go by (passively living the relationship without trying to hurt/help anything) or throw in sludge upstream and say "there! see, it's all bad!"

 

Other views?

[lonelyandfrustrated]

If someone lists "too much water under the bridge" as a reason to divorce, it tells me that they don't understand the idiom very well.

 

Water under the bridge means that past conflicts have been forgotten or forgiven.

 

Obviously, if someone cites it as a reason to divorce, they have neither forgotten or forgiven. I would give them a book of idioms with their definitions as a good-bye gift.

[OpenBook]

To me it means they're "plumb wore-out" on their mates. The relationship has run its course. There's nothing else to bleed out of it.