Thursday, May 19, 2005

Among my friends love is a great sorrow

I was hanging out with my friend today and we started talking all the way on the Spadina-University line.

One thing led to another and suddenly I started telling him about all my other friends who are pairing off -- "squiring."

I started telling him about how a lot of my friends aren't really marrying for love. They are all hitting the "quarter-life" stage -- 25 years old. They are transitioning to real adulthood where it is no longer crass to judge others by the size of their stock portfolio.

Stability becomes key. And many of my friends -- males -- are just looking to get married to whatever girl that can provided them with "home and hearth." Lots of them want children, a little slugger to play catch with, that type of thing.

It's a scary thought for me. I have a hard time thinking like that.

Anywho, my friend Cliff, he is a little younger, and didn't know anybody that's transitioning to that stage yet. So, he was more than a little surprised when I talk about how many of my friends don't want to marry a woman they love.

It's too unstable, I told him, they need a woman to keep them on track, not somebody that lits the fire. The fire of love is the most wonderful feeling in the world, but they so often go out of control and your whole world get burned. Much safer with vegetable love. After all, Mrs. Bennet is not as bad as most people think.

I don't think he quite got it. I think I should've been a "safe-speaker" and kept quiet. Or better yet showed him Housman's poem.

No comments: