We've covered the wedding-ring coffin biz in depth (check it out here, here, and here), and it's gaining even more popularity. Atlanta divorce attorney Melody Richardson now gives them to clients as a token of appreciation for their business.

Richardson had gifted champagne and massage kits in the past, but says she found these apropos and couldn't pass them up. I don't know about you, but if I just shelled out a few thousand for legal fees, I'd prefer the liquor. (Guess it depends on how the court ruled.)

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During audiences at the Vatican on Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI called divorce and abortion "grave sins" and warned that a "culture of death" may even put the lives of the elderly at risk.

The pope says divorce and abortion harm the dignity of human life, cause suffering to those involved and hurt innocent victims, such as the unborn child or the children of a divorced couple.

He told participants in a Catholic congress that "The ethical judgement of the Church on divorce and abortion is clear and well-known, they are serious offences... which violate human dignity, inflict deep injustice on human and social relations and offend God himself, guarantor of conjugal peace and origin of life."

However, he did add that there were those that have committed such "errors" and have "suffered" from wounds of the soul and sought peace.

"Divorce and abortion are choices....which sometimes develop in difficult and dramatic circumstances... and are a source of profound suffering for those who take such decisions."

He then called on the Catholic church to be merciful to those that have experienced such events.

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Looking for a good, cathartic read? Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert might be just it. Gilbert's memoir chronicling her year abroad following a painful divorce has become a huge success with more than 1 million copies in print and published in 30 languages.

This is not a huge surprise to us at First Wives World. With all of the divorced men and women out there, why wouldn't this book be a success?

Eat, Pray, Love details Gilbert's journey from a divorce to an enlightened, if more spiritual, place. She spends four months eating in Italy, four months praying and meditating in India, and four months finding a balance in Indonesia.

Gilbert, who begins her first national book tour this Friday in Arizona, says that her book tends to speak to all people, and said, "Even if you're not into the spiritual journey, you can enjoy the pizza."

She says that after her divorce, she desperately need to do what she did in order to "grow up" and get her life "back together."

Sounds like a great idea to me. But according to Gilbert, there are those have disagreed and told her that a year long vacation was nothing but a "selfish escape" from her "romantic failures." What do you think?

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The Economic Times ran an article recently on how Muslim men and women might soon have equal rights. It seems that the All India Muslim Women Personal Law board wants to instate some western culture into an eastern world through the "Shariat Nikahnama." Good for them.

The board wants to overrule divorce carried out through SMS, e-mail, and video conferencing.

Hold up here... People in New Delhi can divorce via email? "Hi. I'm divorcing you. Signed, your new ex-husband." Um, yeah.

On the other hand, why is this such a bad thing? From what the media tells me, women are treated pretty shabbily in many places of the world, to say the least. There are countries where stoning is legal and where exposing a cheekbone or an ankle results in punishment.

In fact, the article quoted Shaista Amber, the AIMWPLB president as saying that the "Shariat Nikahnama" would entitle a woman to separate from her husband if there was any kind of ill treatment or torture.

Torture? Hold up again. Wouldn't it be smarter to make torture against the law first?

Here's my line of thinking: If a man tortured me and wouldn't have to live up to any consequences, I'd be firing up the laptop pretty fast for that quickie divorce a la email. "Which account would you like to use, honey? I'll set it up for you... would you like me to write it out and you just hit send?"

The other 90 percent of the proposed changes perfect sense, and they'd allow women to divorce after the discovery of an affair, a lack of family support, bad treatment and more. They're all perfectly justifiable reasons. Women should be allowed to part ways with someone who blew the concept of marriage out the window.

A recent CNN article highlighted divorce parties — and made a strong argument for the growing trend. Much like a wedding ceremony, a divorce party celebrates a pivotal transition in life. In fact, L.A.-based Christine Gallagher runs The Divorce Party Planner, a company devoted solely to planning such events.

Gallagher says divorce is a part of life, yet it's the only major milestone for which there is no ritual.

One divorcee that was interviewed agrees, adding that something as simple as a toaster, a common registry gift, means much more after a split than on the wedding day and recently set up a divorce registry for a friend. (Especially after hefty legal bills.)

Another ceremoniously reclaimed her maiden name. Former beauty queen Shanna Moakler held a Vegas bash, complete with a knife-wielding-bride cake topper. The groom? Dead. (The miniature one, of course. The real groom, Travis Barker, is alive and well.)

We're pro-divorce party. What better way to usher in a new perspective on life than with your closest friends and family.... Out with the old, in with the new, right?

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Mind and spirit expert Debbie Ford, who has contributed to First Wives World most recently in December (check it out here), debuted a new book, Why Good People Do Bad Things: How to Stop Being Your Own Worst Enemy, this week, and it's flying off the shelves.

Debbie's book is rising up the ranks of amazon.com's best-seller list, and we couldn't be more happy for the life coach and author. Congratulations, Debbie!

To find out more about the book, as well as some special gifts from Debbie, go here.

The rate of divorce among those in the armed forces held steady last year at 3.3 percent, which is leaving some wondering whether the figure — which was reported by the Pentagon — is an accurate one.

Consider for a moment the amount of stress that having a spouse in the military, on active duty, can put on a marriage, especially if there are children involved, and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if at least half of them divorced. So, why aren't they?

One Army spokesman, Paul Boyce, credits the military's "strong programs ... and a sense of real teamwork among the families," for the fairly low divorce rate.

For example, the Marines have offered workshops to teach couples to manage conflict, solve problems, and communicate better, and the Navy started a similar program.

The Army has started paying for what it calls its "Family Covenant," a broad initiative of services and facilities to improve the quality of life for military families nationwide and overseas. It includes improving health care, schools, housing, and child care to relieve stress on spouses.

Army chaplains have trained some 60,000 active duty and reservists in the "Strong Bonds" program for strengthening personal relationships. Troops also get mental-health training in a program called "Battlemind" that teaches about common problems to expect at home as troops readjust to domestic life.

Still, the numbers tracked do not speak of marriages that are in trouble or falling apart, just those that have ended. In 2006 troops were given a mental health survey, 20 percent of those questioned said that they or their spouse were planning a divorce, compared with 15 percent in 2005.

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Forget about those Santa Ana winds. Oscar's embers blew directly into Ann Blanchard's house Tuesday night as Hollywood honchos, TV execs, first and second wives, along with various and sundry well-wishers gathered for a reading of Mimi Schmir's fictional and hilarious "Hot Flashes" blog...

The confab, masterminded by the former William Morris überagent who's now with Mosaic Media, drew Hollywood's finest TV and film actresses who read selections from the blog which chronicles the rollercoaster antics of Schmir's heroine, Esme, a late 40s-ish divorced mother of two. While I wasn't in Ann's parlor experiencing the "Hot Flashes," faux and for-real, firstwivesworld.com's intrepid correspondent reports the evening was a scorcher. Yes, HOT or you know, HOT!

Actresses Amy Brenneman ("Private Practice" and "Judging Amy"); Dana Delany ("Desperate Housewives"); Kathyrn Morris ("Cold Case"); and Natasha Henstridge ("Commander-in-Chief") each morphed into Esme as they read portions of the edgy blog that began on firstwivesworld.com. And they say there aren't any good parts for women?? Huh?!

Schmir, a writer for TV hits "Grey's Anatomy" and "Shark," was feted for her fiesty and comedic portrayal of the daily exploits of a pre-menopausal late 40s mom who's trying to move on with her life after a divorce in which her husband leaves her for a younger model (surprise, surprise). "Hot Flashes" just may be the next "Starter Wife" but there's a difference: "Hot Flashes" started on firstwivesworld.com, yes, the Web baby, and is destined for episodic television.

I think we can all say with relative certainty that divorce sucks. Unfortunately, the fact that it sucks discounts neither its reality nor its necessity. Holland's first divorce fair is a good indicator of that.

Following in the footsteps of the Austrian divorce fair last year, mediators, lawyers, financial planners and others convened in the Netherlands to create a one-stop shop for divorcing couples. In addition to the usual suspects, there were booths for dating services, paternity testing, and "divorce planners," who are less like wedding planners and more like financial advisors.

That the world needs another divorce fair does not surprise me. When it comes to divorce, little surprises me anymore. What surprises me is the attitude of those getting divorced. Elsbeth van den Berg, founder of a Dutch divorce Web site, says that couples treat each other horribly during the divorce process. "People feel rejected, neglected, and the only thing they want to do is not to say ‘I feel sad'. No, they want to say ‘I'm going to hurt you, like you hurt me.'"

Seriously, why does this happen? Across the world, 50 percent of married couples get divorced. We have to know that there's at least a chance it will happen to us. Why do we spend so much time raging? Why are we so hell-bent on revenge? Why do we spend so much more time hating him than we do loving ourselves? Why is spiritual divorce the exception, rather than the rule?

One of the attendees, an unmarried man there to get information for a divorcing friend, said "As far as I'm concerned, I think marriage is a failed institution. I think joining this failed institution is a waste of time. You don't need a piece of paper to say that you're in a relationship."

"Me & You, Us Forever," is an indie film about a love story that was 30 years in the making. It's the story of Dave, a 47-year-old Christian man, who's on the unwanted end of a divorce.

The movie follows Dave through the process of his painful divorce and his dive back into the dating scene. Unsure of how to get back out there, he finds himself longing to see his first love, Mary, who he hasn't seen in 30 years.

Against the advice of his co-workers and much to the chagrin of his potential girlfriend Carla, who he met at a Christian Divorce Recovery Group, Dave goes see Mary who's now married with children and living in New York. Dave and Mary fell in love as high school sweethearts and he's always wondered what happened to her.

The film is set in 2004 and flashes back to 1974. The viewer sees the relationship through Dave's eyes and how things ended with Mary.

I think anytime that we've had love and lost it — through any circumstances — it always creates a potential for us to go back and examine all of our past relationships, as well as the current one. Although I haven't seen it, I think this movie appears to offer an excellent portrayal of process in which we re-examine previous relationships, perhaps measuring them against our current one.

To read more about "Me & You, Us, Forever," you can visit the film's Website. You can view the trailer here. The film's writer, director and producer, Dave Christiano sums it up beautifully by saying "I believe we have a strong message and one that will help people. Everyone knows someone that's divorced, so I think this film will touch a lot of people."