I'm sitting in Las Vegas airport, home of the drive through wedding chapel, next to a drunk couple who have been married a total of nine times between them, reading an amazing essay by Nerve's Lisa Gabrielle on why she's managed to stay unmarried for forty years.
She believes that it's much better to be alone than to settle, but points out that as we get older, more and more women seem to be settling for Mr Good Enough.
For me, what resonates most is when she writes:
Am I marrying him to say I got picked? Because this is what people do? So I won't be pitied or scorned? Am I seriously considering spending the rest of my life with this guy, or do I know in the back of my mind that this will end, but that at least I will have been married?
Don't get me wrong, I know lots of happy married couples, and hope to be one myself, but why do women need to believe in the magical happy ending?
I'm not sure they NEED to believe in it, but it's better to believe in a happy ending than a sad one isn't it? It's a question of companionship and the idea of being by yourself starts to pale a bit after a certain age.
Posted by: Gary | Thursday, 17 April 2008 at 09:37 AM
No woman wants to die a lonely, old spinster
Posted by: jordan | Saturday, 19 April 2008 at 10:11 PM