The whole idea, though, is that for the life of me, I'm just not able to see myself as an - emotional? - necessity. PC has made me, an ostensibly white guy, a societal inconvenience. Add into it the current wisdom that runs about these days that a "Man needs a feminine touch in his life to complete him" while "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle" and...Hell. We're training our fourth generation of girls to think that way.
Relationships to me are an intellectual exercise at best anymore. I'm not someones ATM, or handyman, or breathing dildo, or emotional tampon, or anything else like that. Are there women who don't think that way? Sure are. All taken. Women my age what are single got some serious baggage - if I'm not living up to a ghost, I'm answering for the collective sins of men, and either way I just don't have the patience to try anymore. When I do, I keep it superficial, don't build up expectations on either side, and avoid the endless string of disappointments.
One thing I know, though - if you are not necessary to someone you are living on borrowed time until they find someone who is necessary to them; and vice-versa. There's a big difference between "Happy to see you" and knowing that when you walk in the door the sun has just risen for them. And people can tell this, at least when they don't lie to themselves.
Whatever the case, though, it's a game for the young, and the un-cynical. At a certain point it just becomes too late to worry about it, and that future is now for me. I'm too old a dog to learn a new trick. And I may not know what's right, but I can sure tell you what is wrong, and that wrongness is when a person in a relationship is an island unto themselves. The moreso when there are two of them
