The particular event that inspired this post was a bishop's fireside that, naturally, focused on finding a spouse. Most of the people in my ward don't know me that well and were/might be surprised that I hurried off afterward to go cry myself to sleep. I this might offer a little clarity for those who REALLY want to know.
As with my other posts about women, if you're easily offended or disturbed, please take the opportunity to look away now. I'd also re-examine what you're doing surfing the internet, but that might just be me.
Let's examine the evidence of why I probably won't end up married anytime soon:
- My mother didn't love me enough. More strictly, she didn't love me in a way that I (or sane people) could feel loved. It's a terrible cliché, I know, but without the unconditional love of a mother or any other female figure in my life (which there was none) I have a hard time believing that a woman might love me, personally, for who I am.
- My mother tragically skewed my view of women. There's no two ways around it, my mother hates men, and it shows in the way she treats my father. In her eyes, the only men who are worthy to live are the ones with big, fat wallets, and 12-or-more-inch long penises. Since my mother is the only woman I really knew growing up, I somehow gained the impression that women didn't really like men, but tolerated them for the hard labor and spermatozoa. In a cruel twist of irony, this song was made by Good Charlotte... any guesses at what my mom's name is?
- I didn't exactly grow up with the best example of a healthy and stable marriage. My parents tell me they love each other, but it's really hard to tell by looking at them. Their time together was usually dominated by my mom criticizing my dad and throwing crap at him while my dad swore profusely. The times they told me they loved each other were outnumbered at least 10 to 1 by the times they told me how big of a prick/b*tch the other one was. When this is your mental picture of marriage, it's not exactly something you run out to sign up for.
- Contemporary western society doesn't exactly embrace men. Why are men from all over living in their parents' basements playing video games all day? It's because there's really no place in our society for those with a Y chromosome. In courtship, men don't really have much to offer women these days, while women still expect men to significantly improve their lives. Simply put, women still expect just as much from men as they ever did, but men have much less ground to stand on. Additionally, society continuously deprecates men, but still expects them to have plenty of confidence and no insecurities. At no time is this more apparent than when you ask men to approach women in courtship.
- I'm not exactly what you'd call a typical Latter-day Saint male. There are two common simple, objective metrics by which a young woman can evaluate her future spouse: RM status and the relationship he has with his mother. I'm not eligible to go on a mission, and as you can image from the reading above, my relationship with my mother is strained. In baseball, I'd have one more strike, but with many women, I don't. Women have a lot of other things they're looking for in a spouse that might eliminate me from consideration, but these are the two most damning ones.
- Nature and nurture. In addition to my mom skewing my views of women, I was born with a chemical predisposition to not be very aggressive. This was combined with the fact that I was an only child and spent much of my time without the company of other people my age, making me not terribly outgoing, or excited to socialize with other people.
I hope that gives you a good idea of why I'm so pessimistic about my prospects for marriage. In my mind these all fit together fairly easily, but I'm not sure that I totally managed to communicate what's going on in my brain. I think you get a pretty good idea, though.
I've decided that I should go to med school, be done by 35, and buy myself a Ferrari. :v
ReplyDeleteThis enlightening blog post hits on some more reasons to avoid marriage (mostly revolving around your bullet point #4).
ReplyDeletehttp://heartiste.wordpress.com/2008/01/14/dont-get-married/
But ultimately, regardless of all these reasons, you will have to come face to face with the inevitable question: are you willing to go to your grave a virgin? (That is, if you indeed are-- just an assumption based on your stated faith.) Is your religion something you are willing to embrace to the end of your days in lieu of the masculine prerogative, a base desire that, when fulfilled, is at the root of finding joy in this life?
I believe in The Hands.
ReplyDelete