Dear examinator,

I read your post to mrs p. and I Congratulate you
for your beautifully expressed sentiments. Your
partner is a lucky woman, is all I can say.

As for the "forever" concept - that's not something
I can even begin to contemplate in my marriage.
Because I don't want to fall into the trap of taking
anything for granted. You know the Aztecs were terrified
each night when the sun set that it would not rise again
the next morning. They were grateful for every dawn.

And so am I. -I'm grateful -
That we managed to find each other, that we get to begin
our days together, share our lives together, respect
each other, support each other, and let the other be.
To discover the joy of living with a lover and a friend.
However, I don't mean to suggest that our marriage is
without its problems. What marriange is?
Life is a journey - and who knows where it may yet lead.

The following words sums it up rather well:

"Come my love and we shall wander,
All of life to see and know,
In the season's lostward rambling,
All things come and all things go.

We shall climb the snowy mountains,
Sail across the rolling sea,
We shall live for one another
I for you and you for me.

We'll go down to green grass meadows,
Where the cold winds never blow,
If we taste the wine of loving,
Only you and I shall know.

Come my love and we shall wander,
Just to see what we can find,
If we only find each other,
Still the journey's worth the time."
(Sorry I can't remember the author).

All The Best.

Examinator, my thoughts re' marriage/fidelity etc:
IMO it really only began to matter anywhere once inheriting things/power/whatever began to be a social norm. Until then the basic tribal structure of human life had not leant itself to the concept of hereditary anything, beyond the tribe/clan that is. Once it DID matter however, men took control, and so women were restricted in whatever way developed in that particular culture. It was a typical male response to a given situation, genetically driven.
Now however we have come full circle, to where women are holding their own politically and socially, as they did in those days of yore. We now have the ability to determine parentage, with 100% accuracy, almost anyway. It would seem the logical next step to use that ability to simplify many aspects of our current gender-tensions. And I include especially evolving some new form of social contract to replace marriage as we know it, whatever you call it then.
Foxy, you lucky girl, I envy you you're situation. I once felt like that, but it didn't last for us, as many don't, so good luck with yours, in my post-apocalyptic wisdom it sure seems to me your on the right track.
As for women's feelings re' me, lol, my daughter seems to like me, I raised her (and her two elder brothers) alone, from 18mths till 18yrs, but I don't want to think what my ex might say!
But it did give me many reasons to think about all this, raising her, lol.

Dear Maximillion,

Thanks. I consider myself lucky as well.
However - as I've learnt and am still learning
it's a 'work in progress,' and still evolving.

As for future relationships between men and women.
Things are changing slowly.
My niece did things in reverse - She
became pregnant first, gave birth, and
then a year later, married her partner.
This would have been scandalous years ago. Now,
nobody thinks twice about it. Well, almost
nobody. The only people
that were upset in the beginning were my niece's
mother (a strong Catholic) and my niece's grandfather,
also a religious man -
who wrote his grandaughter a letter of condemnation.

I actually ended up giving grandad a ring - and
jokingly asked him whether he valued 'motherhood?'
He replied, 'of-course!' Then I asked, in that case,
why did he find it demeaning when the word "unwed,'
was placed in front of it?

Anyway, now that she's married - all's well.
Fingers crossed, it stays that way.

Hi Foxy.

That poem is in fact a song called Wanderlove, written by Mason Williams (yep, he of "Classical Gas" fame) in 1963. You can find a recording by Esther and Abi Ofarim on YouTube...

The male psyche is to adventure and conquor the unconquered. He doesn't want used goods, or to climb where others have climbed. But is why girls look for an experienced achiever. The female psyche is to be accepted and thought of as beautiful that is why some girls who have been mistreated or neglected by their fathers seek multiple male approval from many lovers. Girls will spend five times longer preening themselves that boys. The average shower time for teenage girls in my home is about 20 minutes while boys is four max.

True soul mates are the ones who place their exclusive partner as their number one lover.

Max said:

"There are many double-standards around us, just look to the court system, women get far less custodial sentences, and lesser ones when they do, and they only have to claim some sort of masculine oppression to get the sympathy of the court, without any discernible need to prove it. Any male brought before the court on a sexual charge is required to prove his innocence, no matter what the Law says, a females word is often enough for conviction, and even if he escapes that, the mud sticks, as we all know."

I could not agree more on both, and this is one of the most descriminatory results of Political Correctness from the 1970s onwards as described by "old style" [true] feminist Helen Garner. Her first book "First Stone" has just been repeated [ie the mud sticks as you say] with the Brett Stewart matter.

Her second book "Joe Cinquie" was about your other matter where a brutal murder by a young female law student was judged to be manslaughter