Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site stat-l Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!mgnetp!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!CS-Mordred!Pucc-H:Pucc-I:Stat-L:ab3 From: ab3@stat-l (Rsk the Wombat) Newsgroups: net.singles Subject: Re: thoughts on desperation Message-ID: <58@stat-l> Date: Fri, 18-May-84 11:15:57 EDT Article-I.D.: stat-l.58 Posted: Fri May 18 11:15:57 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 20-May-84 00:02:41 EDT References: <709@pucc-h> Organization: Pucc Unix Systems Group Lines: 61 Oh, dear; here we go again. Look, your honesty and openness is very much appreciated...your insistence on dragging in irrelevant religious junk is not. If you want forgiveness for something you did to a casual dating partner in high school, then go find her and ask for it! Failing that, forget about it...she probably has, unless it was something *really* horrible, which you seem to have implied it wasn't. I really don't think most of us are looking for a SO as a substitute for divine forgiveness; I'm looking for (well, I guess I've found) a SO or two for companionship, caring, love, sex, and backing in times of crisis. From the discussions in this newsgroup, I'd say that most of us want something along these lines, with the occasional addition of things like financial support, children, 3 a.m. backrubs, sympathy during hangovers, and the like. As far as I'm concerned, the god you refer to so often is as dead as a rock, if he/she/it ever existed. In any case (god is dead, god is around, god is out for a 10 million year lunch), I really don't care; I don't need a god, just like I don't need elevator shoes, and I it really pisses the hell out of me to have folks running around trying to convince me that I can't live without one. This is why I don't (for instance) subscribe to net.religion; just to avoid the conversionist crap. As far as religion (separate issue from god) is concerned, there's no good advice or assistance available there either; this silly pompous old man in Rome tells us "No birth control, kiddies", and "No abortions", and "No sex until you're married" and "No sex when you're married *unless* you make babies", and thus screws up more folks' lives with unnecessary guilt feelings, and unwanted children, and repressed sexuality than anyone else I can think of. Similar messages are heard from other religious leaders, occasionally embellished with "Don't dance" and "Don't wear this kind of clothing" and "Don't read that" and other miscellaneous admonishments against most of the really enjoyable things in life. These bozos know nothing of the realities of being single; you'll get much better and much wiser advice from the hookers on Rush Street or the students on the Ft. Lauderdale beach during spring break or the folks hanging out at the Stabilizer (local bar) on pitcher night. As Jethro Tull put it... "When I was young, and they packed me off to school, I didn't mind, if they groomed me for success, And taught me how not to play the game... Well, I left there in the morning, With their god tucked underneath my arm, Their half-ass smile, and their book of rules..." By the way, some of the BEST advice on personal relationships, love, sex, and whatever is to be found in "The Rape of the A.P.E. (American Puritan Ethic)" by (of all people) Allen Sherman. It examines the sexual revolution, whatever that is/was, and includes a hysterical chapter entirely devoted to the work "fuck", which is something you won't find in just *any* book. It's a hard book to find, but very much worth the effort. -- Rsk the Wombat UUCP: { allegra, decvax, ihnp4, harpo, teklabs, ucbvax } !pur-ee!rsk { cornell, eagle, hplabs, ittvax, lanl-a, ncrday } !purdue!rsk