singles

So, what is it about being single that scares the bejesus out of us? The loneliness? The sick feeling in the pit of your stomach that you will never again have meaningful copulation? Well, I guess that's not entirely true. But what is it that makes us so judgemental to other singles?

This thought particularly pertains to women, as is what I've noticed. As soon as we find a single woman we begin picking her apart to figure out her flaws and weaknesses. As if in some way we will find the missing chromosome to her failed relationships. However, more often than not we label this woman with her applicable handicap and predict her fatalistic love life for the next 20 years. "Well, she'll never get married." What do we mean with a tongue lashing like that? Who are we to play prophet to Cupid's arrows?

We hear her embittered voice cracking with intensity over the most recent lover who has opted for the friends route. She then proceeds to discuss her clinginess, obsessions, compulsions. But, she doesn't label them with such realistic tags. To her it's "affection" and "worry" and "necessity". Deborah Tannen was right: males and females do speak in different languages. And yet we choose each other to enjoy. We're putting our own heads under the blade and for what? A warm body, perhaps a personality, maybe conversation, something called intimacy, and ultimately, propagating the species. Ah, love is in the air.

Happy Valentine's Day