Zebra wrote:
el every young man should get married at least once and have the experience.... have a Ch*ld or two. If it works out.... fine, if it doesn't, why risk getting back into it? As for me, being alone has certainly not been the worst thing in the world...it suits me fine.
As someone who is in the successful 50% bracket of marriage, I feel a need to address a few things.
First of all, the concept of being alone is baloney. No one lives 'alone', unless you happen to be a yogi meditating in a remote cave in the Himalayas. Human beings are social animals. We seek company, the company of men for camaraderie, and the company of women for more intimate encounters. Yin seeks yang, yang seeks yin, it's hardwired into our bodies and our psyches. I've practiced Buddhism for a part of my lifetime and they have retreats where they lock you up in a room for a day, week, month or more. They also have 'dark retreats' where they lock you up in said room in the dark for periods of time. You quickly find out how well you do alone with yourself. You soon discover that your mind will drive you crazy, and we seek distractions from the obsessive barrage of mind via entertainment, friends, p*ssy, sports,etc. So basically the notion that the fear of being alone driving one to marriage is too narrow minded IMO.
So it is really the amount of time one spends and the level of commitment one has with another that is really at issue here. I think the issue regarding marriage, from what I've read previously on this thread is coming from several points of view, overt and covert:
1. I agree with others, that some are made for marriage and some are not. Some people are made to be single, no doubt. More power to everyone, based on their inner characteristics.
2. Immaturity - my feeling is that some guys have simply not developed socially sufficiently to handle marriage, using the badmouthing of marriage and gringas as a defense for their lack of social capacity.
3. Narcissism - some guys simply haven't developed enough beyond a selfish, narcisstic existence and haven't a clue about loving someone.
4. Fear - opening up to others means dropping one's armor and defenses, and becoming slightly or greatly vulnerable. For some guys, this creates an inner conflict, a fight between the sense that love (which is in part true vulnerability) is not 'manly'. For others, there's a fear of the loss of power by being vulnerable to a woman. And of course, the fear of getting one's heart stomped on, often based on past experience, keeps one from opening up again in their life. And a mongering lifestyle created a life situation where that is possible. Again, the badmouthing of marriage and gringas could be masking this fear, or a bandage around a previous vulnerability 'burn''.
4. Break time - some guys, coming out of difficult relationships, find p*ssy palace in SJO and other places a dream come true, having one's cake and eat it too! Some make it a lifestyle. Some will get tired of it and try to find a lasting relationship. Then get burned again, back to mongering, and so on. Some find fulfillment and the relationship works for a long period of time.
5. Lack of risk taking - here we have a bunch of guys who fly to foreign countries, putting themselves at high risk for robbery, kidnapping, murder, STDs, HIV and god knows what else, but shiver at the notion of being in the 50% failure group of marriage, or even the thought of the risk of being in love, dependent or vulnerable with someone. Seems a bit funny no?
6. Impermanence and death - sooner or later your LTR or marriage will end. By divorce, separation, death of your lover or yourself. In all these cases, pain and suffering will occur. It's part of the package. Some are willing to enter into LTRs and marriage despite this reality. Some don't want that pain. Most folks pretty much avoid thinking about death.
7. Practical marriage issues (read: money) - no man, including me, likes the ways the laws are setup regarding marriage/divorce- mainly because men, for the most part, are the bigger bread winners in the pair and have more to lose. That's probably true in 95% of the cases now, but this will change in the next generation.
My basic point that there seems to be so much fury and anger at marriage, LTRs and gringas on this board and others, that it sets off yellow and red flags in my mind often. IMO, there are other issues breeding underneath the surface besides the bitchiness of gringas, lots of unfinished business in the psyches of my fellow dudes. But, still, we do need a place to vent our frustrations with women, who, by all means of scientific and technical analyses, are basically insane.
I also feel the issue is not gringas specifically, but the basic battle of the sexes, which is often a power battle, which is universal. How many of you have done well bedding wealthy Latinas or Asianas? They have the power of money, just like us, and boy, they ignore me as profoundly as any gringa.
Another point is that no form of relationship, even non-relationship, is perfect - it will always have negative aspects, a shadow, etc. Some do not want enter a particular form of relationship to avoid the negatives, but will not have the joy of the positives (and there are plenty of both, from my experience). Those are choices we have to make and live with.