Life's Paths

I've been unmarried for over 14 years. I don't think about it much and today's society doesn't either.

Now and again someone will ask if I'm lonely - no.

Sometimes in conversation, people offer up the moans and groans of their couple-hood. Do I feel glad I'm not engaged to have my own contributions - usually. Sometimes, I just think that their "socks on the floor" comments are air escaping and they are in generally in good company. And...I think they know that too. Do I actively desire a partnership - no.

There are times that I think a nice meal out with intimate lighting and pleasant conversation rather than a Kindle would be nice. But the Kindle has good lighting and so I am in decent company after all.

I know my flaws. I get easily bored with repetition. My job offers me the comfort of knowledge repetition with an ever-changing landscape of locales, schedules, configuration and project teams. Having the bulk of my close family and friends scattered across the country offers me familiar, but not routinely scheduled holidays. I'm not afraid to vacation on my own - even in a foreign country. My daughter who lives near me, seems to thrive on the same, dynamic living pattern as I do.

So the challenge becomes how to harness the freedom of mind and body to create and maintain a stable coupled relationship. Especially when a partner is seeking a normal rhythm of life - get up and converse, head to respective jobs, return home and create a meal, share the daily goings on, go to bed at a regular time as a pair, rinse and repeat.

I change shampoos regularly. I have not mastered the rinse and repeat. My mother did not master it. I am not even particularly enamored towards it.

Why do men find unfetteredness so attractive and then began a project to harness it?