Recently, I had a gathering of sorts at my place. A gregarious evening steadily approached dawn as the numbers dwindled away to a few. Most of us were in the 35 plus category. Among the six of us that persisted to the end, it suddenly struck me that, I was the only one married. Of the rest, two were divorced, three single. And in that quirky way that quirky thoughts arise at that time of the day/night, I thought, surely these are the people responsible for the fact that my son has more electronic games than playmates. It sounded like the kind of thought that needed voicing and soon we had a lively discussion about staying single, being married, being divorced and other such early morning anthropological concerns.
Man is supposed to be a social animal. He needs somebody to watch football with as proven by sports bars. She needs somebody to shop with as proven by supplementary credit cards. Even cinemas, a place where you are in the dark for nearly 180 minutes and not allowed to talk aloud, twos, threes and fours crunch away at the same popcorn bucket.
So what is it then that makes people choose to live alone rather than commit to a relationship or work on a marriage?
Undoubtedly some relationships are better ended and some paths never explored. Nobody wants to be lonely was a unanimous vote. Choosing to be alone was…well, a choice. None of us that night had given up on love or companionship, yet, statistically, the majority was alone.
What do you think?