Second marriages have long been called a triumph of hope over experience — a line rooted in the assumption that remarriage simply repeats the dynamics of a first union. But that notion is increasingly outdated.
Today's second marriages are so distinct from what first unions entail that they almost deserve a moniker of their own (“conscious recoupling,” anyone?). For one thing, people who remarry tend to be older almost by definition, with the fastest rate of growth in second unions happening among men and women ages 65 and up.
