merrill@raja.DEC (Rick - Font Mgr. for Hardcopy Engineering) (06/21/85)
>... >On the other hand, I have tried my hand at nonmarital sex, and have enjoyed >... ^^ Obviously has a lot to learn!!! >My idea is that if a man and a woman are consenting, anything goes. I would >not have sex with someone that I just met, or don't care very much for, ... Remember the WWII poster: "She may look clean, BUT ..." >I just think that commitment is the keyword here, but it does not >necessarily have to be towards marriage. Nice sentiment, Colin, but marriage IS commitment and the MOST commitment IS marriage. I suggest that there is much PRACTICAL value in most moral "rules" and it probably pays in the long run. Not only are there VD things and AIDS to avoid but there are positive benefits from having that "first time" with Someone With Whom You Are Totally And Mutually Committed (virtually married). Has anyone out there forgotten your "first love"? (any base counts as a 'hit'!) Is it too much to draw an analogy from that memory with the "imprinting" of ducks? Rick Merrill "There is more in this world than is dreamt of in your philosophy." - Polonious(?) (- Shakespeare)
chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) (06/21/85)
[future followups to this article are being redirected to net.singles as the most appropriate place for them] > Nice sentiment, Colin, but marriage IS commitment and the MOST > commitment IS marriage. I'll agree marriage is commitment, but the obverse is true because of it. Marriage is simply a social convention for a public announcement of your commitment. If you have a true commitment, you don't NEED marriage to prove your commitment to anyone, including your God. This doesn't mean that you might not WANT marriage. If the commitment is a strong one, making sure the world knows about it is an obvious response. The reality is that 1 of 2 marriages ends in divorce. The MTBF of a marriage is 5-7 years. It is obvious that many people don't understand the difference between marriage and commitment. Marriage is NOT a commitment, but an announcement of commitment. If you expect the announcement to take the place of the commitment, you're in trouble. Good relationships can work just as well outside of marriage as they do inside of marriage if the couple wants it to. Bad relationships fail regardless. As an official statistic in the marriage game, I know from experience that many people believe in the fantasy of 'They lived happily ever after'. It is quite easy to get married. It is much harder to stay married. I wish more people realized this. >I suggest that there is much PRACTICAL value in most moral "rules" and >it probably pays in the long run. Not only are there VD things and AIDS >to avoid but there are positive benefits from having that "first time" with >Someone With Whom You Are Totally And Mutually Committed (virtually married). You forgot herpes, stomach flu and communism. If you masterbate, you'll grow hair on the palms of your hands (Hmm... where IS my razor?). Any time you do something to excess and don't take proper care you are going to get burnt. People who are indiscriminate in their partners are more likely to have a problem than people who aren't, and people who don't know whether or not their potential partner is indiscriminate is being indiscriminate. >Has anyone out there forgotten your "first love"? (any base counts as a 'hit'!) Oh, yes. 14, varicose veins in the nose, and (in retrospect) a total bitch. No, I'll never forget her. Made my ex-wife look angelic. Made ME look angelic. -- :From the misfiring synapses of: Chuq Von Rospach {cbosgd,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA The offices were very nice, and the clients were only raping the land, and then, of course, there was the money...