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Thursday, May 1, 2008

I found the following post on the website of a american radio programme that I am recently got hooked on. Tell me if this applies to Singaporeans...

Serene

This is a crazy story. First is an interview with the author, then is the text of the article from the Atlantic Monthly.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18751687

Commentary
Single 40-Year-Old Takes New Look at Marriage
Listen Now [3 min 53 sec] add to playlist

All Things Considered, February 6, 2008 · Commentator Lori Gottlieb recently turned 40 and is still single. She's come to the conclusion that the romantic view of marriage she has been clinging to might be all wrong, and that a more practical, pragmatic approach might make marriage more of a possibility in the future.

See also:
Interview: "The Case for Mr. Not-Quite Right"
Lori Gottlieb talks about soul mates, all-consuming love, and why it makes sense to compromise those www.theatlantic.com/doc/200802u/gottlieb-interview


http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200803/single-marry

Marry Him! : The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough

About six months after my son was born, he and I were sitting on a blanket at the park with a close friend and her daughter. It was a sunny summer weekend, and other parents and their kids picnicked nearby—mothers munching berries and lounging on the grass, fathers tossing balls with their giddy toddlers. My friend and I, who, in fits of self-empowerment, had conceived our babies with donor sperm because we hadn’t met Mr. Right yet, surveyed the idyllic scene.

“Ah, this is the dream,” I said, and we nodded in silence for a minute, then burst out laughing. In some ways, I meant it: we’d both dreamed of motherhood, and here we were, picnicking in the park with our children. But it was also decidedly not the dream. The dream, like that of our mothers and their mothers from time immemorial, was to fall in love, get married, and live happily ever after. Of course, we’d be loath to admit it in this day and age, but ask any soul-baring 40-year-old single heterosexual woman what she most longs for in life, and she probably won’t tell you it’s a better career or a smaller waistline or a bigger apartment. Most likely, she’ll say that what she really wants is a husband (and, by extension, a child).

To the outside world, of course, we still call ourselves feminists and insist—vehemently, even—that we’re independent and self-sufficient and don’t believe in any of that damsel-in-distress stuff, but in reality, we aren’t fish who can do without a bicycle, we’re women who want a traditional family. And despite growing up in an era when the centuries-old mantra to get married young was finally (and, it seemed, refreshingly) replaced by encouragement to postpone that milestone in pursuit of high ideals (education! career! but also true love!), every woman I know—no matter how successful and ambitious, how financially and emotionally secure—feels panic, occasionally coupled with desperation, if she hits 30 and finds herself unmarried.

Oh, I know—I’m guessing there are single 30-year-old women reading this right now who will be writing letters to the editor to say that the women I know aren’t widely representative, that I’ve been co-opted by the cult of the feminist backlash, and basically, that I have no idea what I’m talking about. And all I can say is, if you say you’re not worried, either you’re in denial or you’re lying. In fact, take a good look in the mirror and try to convince yourself that you’re not worried, because you’ll see how silly your face looks when you’re being disingenuous.

Whether you acknowledge it or not, there’s good reason to worry. By the time 35th-birthday-brunch celebrations roll around for still-single women, serious, irreversible life issues masquerading as “jokes” creep into public conversation: Well, I don’t feel old, but my eggs sure do! or Maybe this year I’ll marry Todd. I’m not getting any younger! The birthday girl smiles a bit too widely as she delivers these lines, and everyone laughs a little too hard for a little too long, not because we find these sentiments funny, but because we’re awkwardly acknowledging how unfunny they are. At their core, they pose one of the most complicated, painful, and pervasive dilemmas many single women are forced to grapple with nowadays: Is it better to be alone, or to settle?

My advice is this: Settle! That’s right. Don’t worry about passion or intense connection. Don’t nix a guy based on his annoying habit of yelling “Bravo!” in movie theaters. Overlook his halitosis or abysmal sense of aesthetics. Because if you want to have the infrastructure in place to have a family, settling is the way to go. Based on my observations, in fact, settling will probably make you happier in the long run, since many of those who marry with great expectations become more disillusioned with each passing year. (It’s hard to maintain that level of zing when the conversation morphs into discussions about who’s changing the diapers or balancing the checkbook.)

Obviously, I wasn’t always an advocate of settling. In fact, it took not settling to make me realize that settling is the better option, and even though settling is a rampant phenomenon, talking about it in a positive light makes people profoundly uncomfortable. Whenever I make the case for settling, people look at me with creased brows of disapproval or frowns of disappointment, the way a child might look at an older sibling who just informed her that Jerry’s Kids aren’t going to walk, even if you send them money. It’s not only politically incorrect to get behind settling, it’s downright un-American. Our culture tells us to keep our eyes on the prize (while our mothers, who know better, tell us not to be so picky), and the theme of holding out for true love (whatever that is—look at the divorce rate) permeates our collective mentality.

Even situation comedies, starting in the 1970s with The Mary Tyler Moore Show and going all the way to Friends, feature endearing single women in the dating trenches, and there’s supposed to be something romantic and even heroic about their search for true love. Of course, the crucial difference is that, whereas the earlier series begins after Mary has been jilted by her fiancé, the more modern-day Friends opens as Rachel Green leaves her nice-guy orthodontist fiancé at the altar simply because she isn’t feeling it. But either way, in episode after episode, as both women continue to be unlucky in love, settling starts to look pretty darn appealing. Mary is supposed to be contentedly independent and fulfilled by her newsroom family, but in fact her life seems lonely. Are we to assume that at the end of the series, Mary, by then in her late 30s, found her soul mate after the lights in the newsroom went out and her work family was disbanded? If her experience was anything like mine or that of my single friends, it’s unlikely.

And while Rachel and her supposed soul mate, Ross, finally get together (for the umpteenth time) in the finale of Friends, do we feel confident that she’ll be happier with Ross than she would have been had she settled down with Barry, the orthodontist, 10 years earlier? She and Ross have passion but have never had long-term stability, and the fireworks she experiences with him but not with Barry might actually turn out to be a liability, given how many times their relationship has already gone up in flames. It’s equally questionable whether Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw, who cheated on her kindhearted and generous boyfriend, Aidan, only to end up with the more exciting but self-absorbed Mr. Big, will be better off in the framework of marriage and family. (Some time after the breakup, when Carrie ran into Aidan on the street, he was carrying his infant in a Baby Björn. Can anyone imagine Mr. Big walking around with a Björn?)

When we’re holding out for deep romantic love, we have the fantasy that this level of passionate intensity will make us happier. But marrying Mr. Good Enough might be an equally viable option, especially if you’re looking for a stable, reliable life companion. Madame Bovary might not see it that way, but if she’d remained single, I’ll bet she would have been even more depressed than she was while living with her tedious but caring husband.

What I didn’t realize when I decided, in my 30s, to break up with boyfriends I might otherwise have ended up marrying, is that while settling seems like an enormous act of resignation when you’re looking at it from the vantage point of a single person, once you take the plunge and do it, you’ll probably be relatively content. It sounds obvious now, but I didn’t fully appreciate back then that what makes for a good marriage isn’t necessarily what makes for a good romantic relationship. Once you’re married, it’s not about whom you want to go on vacation with; it’s about whom you want to run a household with. Marriage isn’t a passion-fest; it’s more like a partnership formed to run a very small, mundane, and often boring nonprofit business. And I mean this in a good way.

I don’t mean to say that settling is ideal. I’m simply saying that it might have gotten an undeservedly bad rap. As the only single woman in my son’s mommy-and-me group, I used to listen each week to a litany of unrelenting complaints about people’s husbands and feel pretty good about my decision to hold out for the right guy, only to realize that these women wouldn’t trade places with me for a second, no matter how dull their marriages might be or how desperately they might long for a different husband. They, like me, would rather feel alone in a marriage than actually be alone, because they, like me, realize that marriage ultimately isn’t about cosmic connection—it’s about how having a teammate, even if he’s not the love of your life, is better than not having one at all.

The couples my friend and I saw at the park that summer were enviable but not because they seemed so in love—they were enviable because the husbands played with the kids for 20 minutes so their wives could eat lunch. In practice, my married friends with kids don’t spend that much time with their husbands anyway (between work and child care), and in many cases, their biggest complaint seems to be that they never see each other. So if you rarely see your husband—but he’s a decent guy who takes out the trash and sets up the baby gear, and he provides a second income that allows you to spend time with your child instead of working 60 hours a week to support a family on your own—how much does it matter whether the guy you marry is The One?
& the Ballet Dancer
left at ;

1:39 PM

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Flight to London via QF9 was delayed for an hour due to the late arrival of passages from the connecting flight from Perth. This is one of the most uncomfortable flights I had been on. All the good seats had been taken up despite the plane being only ¾ full. I was given a seat on the left side on the plane between a fat lady in her 50s (sitting by the window and goes to the toilet hourly), and a muscleman rugby player from Oz (sitting by the aisle and having difficulty standing up from his seat to make way for the old lady due to his gigantic size). They are nice and friendly people all right…but both place their arms on the arm rests, reducing whatever tiny space on my economy flight by another ¼. They have big arms ok…Since I cant get to sleep, I watched movies like Evan almighty, Harry Pottie, some NASA space show, No reservations…The choices are rather limited.

Things run like clockwork once I got out of the airport. I took the underground to Newlington Green where I would be staying, carrying 30kg worth of luggage up and down flights of stairs at the interchange. There were ALWAYS gentlemen who helped me carry my hard case up and down the stairs without me having to ask. This reminds me of my last trip to Poland with GA, where Feri and Claybear were our white knights in rescue. And of course, we girls carried as much of the heavy stuff.

Went to SOAS after to see Dr. David Hughes and after which, attended my first lecture in African music at 4-6pm. Dr. Impey was dynamic in her delivery; there is much to ponder over after the lecture. I spent the rest of the day exploring the city and checking out prices of essential things like foodstuff and tolietries, they are not as expensive as I thought.

Off to my lecture now for ‘Aspects of East Asia Music”, looking forward to it. Will post pictures soon.
& the Ballet Dancer
left at ;

10:29 AM

Monday, October 8, 2007

I am spending a lot of time in Starbucks for the past 2 weeks,enjoying the free wireless service at the cost one tall ice mocha. I can spend as long as 6 hours alone at the cafe. I reckon the managment at starbucks has found a way to get rid me... They are currently playing a free jazz CD in the cafe at suntec city. I mean,well, I do respect free jazz music, but when you are trying hard to concentrate in whatever your are doing, the music does no help at all.

I could feel my heartbeat getting faster with the accelerating tempo by the bass and drums.And the saxophone solos,Arggh... Am going to the counter to find out what record it is.Packing up for home now... I need J.S Bach for peace and calm.

check out this interview with professor Milford Graves.
http://www.furious.com/PERFECT/milfordgraves.html
& the Ballet Dancer
left at ;

2:23 AM

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