Bad Beginnings: How to Overcome Them

An HBO show called Big Love is about a modern family in Utah, a family populated by three wives. In Genesis, Jacob had four, if you count Leah’s and Rachel’s maids. That’s a handful.

Generations of men have fantasized about what it would be like to have more than one wife, and some in each generation have tried it. But now, thanks to the HBO series Big Love, we can all gain some insight into such a way of life.

The show, set in Salt Lake City, follows the life of Bill Hendrickson, a modern-day polygamist who has three wives and seven children. And what we find out is that the one-man-multiple-wives scenario is not a dream come true for anybody involved.

Bill’s wives include Barb, whom he married first. She is the mother of the two oldest children, who are teenagers, and one of the younger kids. In many ways, Barb is the most level-headed of the women, but the role of being the steady one begins to wear thin after a while.

Bill’s second wife is Nicki. She is a spender who is always fracturing the family budget; plus, she brings some problems from her childhood in a polygamist group run by her father Roman. That group is a break-off from the Mormon Church. ...