Academic literature on the topic 'Alaska Marriages'

Because marriage brings two individuals who may or may not come from the same background into an intimate relationship, there are times when a marriage can be stressful. Although spirituality may be useful in coping with marital stress, there are few published studies on the influence of spirituality on stress in marriages in recent years. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of spiritualty on stress in marriages. Differentation-based spirituality, an outgrowth of Kerr and Bowen's spirituality theory, served as the theoretical framework. A phenomenological research design was used to explore whether spirituality was a factor that allowed couples to remain married during marital stress. Twelve couples took part in an idiographic sampling which focused on the individual in order to understand the full complexity of the individual's experience with stress they endured in marriage, how they coped with stress, and whether their spiritual beliefs affected their ability to remain married. Audiotaped interviews were transcribed, coded, and then categorized into themes. The results of this study indicated that spirituality affected the marriages of participants. Spirituality is beneficial for couples dealing with stress in their marriage. The social implications for this study are valuable for the professional, and to the clients who seek services from the professionals, positive social change can be found in new directions for future research and developing interventions for professionals working with couples. A recommendation is to develop more research about spirituality, stress, and marriage that can be used to help couples in crises during marriage counseling.

The chapter begins on April 18, 1991, during Operation Provide Comfort commander Lieutenant General John Shalikashvili’s first overflight of the Iraqi-Turkish border. It lays out the scope of this post-Gulf War humanitarian crisis—over 500,000 Kurdish refugees trapped within deadly border mountains—and explains how especially fear of Saddam Hussein’s chemical attacks prompted the Kurds to flee Iraq. The chapter’s second half flashes back to Shalikashvili’s first assignment as an officer, in Alaska in 1959–60, to show his exceptional job performance, his struggles with arrogance and ambition, and his incipient development of a leadership style based on the “three pillars of leadership” or “love, character, and professionalism.” It also shows his loneliness and search for belonging—including how, five years since being betrayed by her, Shalikashvili tracks down Blondie and offers a marriage proposal that is rebuffed, further raising the theme of unrequited love.