The "the thread the nut tightens" line which Dovina commented on in your last post. I just meant it doesn't fit in but tries desperatle, like Jesus.

I'll keep it if only to teach you to stop stopping at line-ends.

Wild with a homebody bent is surprisingly true. How'd you do that? I don't fear religion, I fear becoming religious only for a language/anchor. That's a big concern for me now; my first six months here I'd say 30-40% of my vocabulary was somehow religious. The hazards of living in a Muslim country, yes, but I thought it was applicable in America, too. I'm constantly surprised - and grateful - I'm still married. The way it works is she's more of an adventurer/homebody than me. One-and-a-half months back in America and she's already moved out to Alaska.

i'm not sure of your meaning there, am i overly critical of mortal beings? or is there a specifc line or lines that i abuse?

apparently some ninjas use short stocky pieces of wood called mai poles to train on. they stand on and move about these to gain balace, agility, precision, etc.

1) I used to think that a successful relationship required each party to think the other one was way-better than him/her in practically every category. Now I'm not so sure. If we're only talking about LASTING relationships, I'm REALLY not sure. Not even sure that that kind of relationship exists in the real world. Then you have to add that the servant self-negator gets to think he/she is better than his/her partner for sacrificing him/herself to such a schlub (cf Crystal Lane Swift.) What I can tell you for certain is I've been in an amazing relationship with my now-wife for five years and I'm better than her at not overloading everything I cook with cheese and salt, and cleaning in a quick, superficial way. 2) How often do you think the perfect man abruptly changes into a jerk? Really. That was the serious part of this point. The not serious part is absolute power corrupts absolutely; maybe if you weren't such a servant and self-negator... 3) I think I got the idea early in our correspondence that you were a lot more iconoclastic than you actually are. You can probably tell from the way I'm constantly confounded by your traditionalism. I don't mean that as an insult to traditionalism, I just mean I'd have been talking to you differently if I'd known. 5) On that note - seriously, why would your commitment hold if you didn't find your man desirable? (Please assume that by 'undesirable' we both mean 'over an extended period of time without exception'.) Would you say the same thing if there weren't kids/property in the equation? 6) FROM ZODIAC'S AND MRS ZODIAC'S WEDDING CEREMONY: "Here, today, you stand side by side, excited and exultant, looking out into the future. It’s not clear what that will be exactly. You don’t know where you’ll be taken, or what trials, adventures, and new experiences await you. But you believe that you will be together, looking back across ten, twenty, or seventy years at yourselves, standing here on this day. What you believe, no sacrament or oath can make more real or permanent than the ones you have already made, the simple commitments you have chosen to live by... You are united by a connection that is strong because it is flexible. It endures because it is made anew each day of your free choosing. Your love is not the kind that is blind and unknowing; it is open-eyed and grown out of knowledge and desire to know more... You will settle for nothing, but instead will always pursue your dreams and each other’s. You will be open to new dreams, new goals, and new ideas. You will travel."

Now if you'd just get rid of that irritating "late . . .ly" I'd give you a 9.

The last sentence is understandable after your edit. You fear religion because you fear conformity's crutch. You want it, but want also want the rogue; you're wild with a homebody bent. I'm surprised you're still married.

Wow, I’m about to melt. Does this mean that you’ll raises my desires above yours, every time, every day, knowing that anything less is fleeting and doomed? Just kidding.

If, I DOVINA, were to agree to be a servant and self-negator, it would not be to some jerk self-centered master. The whole point of this discourse is to say that if I marry the perfect man, and at some later time he becomes a jerk, my committment will still hold. I will not can him because he is no longer desirable to me. Do you see that?

Have you gone momentarily epileptic? I didn't say anything about marriage depending on anything except that each party in the marriage know and agree to both parties' roles. If YOU, DOVINA, were to agree to be a servant and self-negator, YOU, DOVINA, would find plenty of guys who'd agree to be masters and self-centered. I personally would rather die than have it that way, but I think it can make a lasting marriage. As lasting as any other kind.