Periodically, I catch up on articles and magazines piling up around here. Sometimes I notice different sources covering similar issues, which then warrants extra attention.
Read this morning that in recent years both Japan and Britain have named "ministers of loneliness". And, this headline from the Associated Press: "Rise in single people worries researchers". I'm not so much concerned about our growing un-partnered population, but am curious about what's driving it.
Of course, leave it to the Japanese to have a great name for the phenomenon: "hikikomori", meaning to withdraw inside. I get that. Luckily for me, there was someone else already living at where I went to withdraw — my wife. As she sometimes points out though, if I had waited any longer to move in, she might have said, "Uh, maybe not."
I wonder what it would be like to be single. Susan would keep on going and would find many ways to fill her days, and nights. But, what about me?
As someone who still uses an old flip phone, it's probably safe to say dating apps wouldn't be part of that future for me. I'd still play golf, volunteer here and there, read and write, and interact with others, but I can't imagine a path that would lead to a life with someone else.
I documented in Sticky Karma the search for my birth mother. Prior to facing the truth of it, her abandonment of me had hopelessly infected my love circuitry. Turned out, I wanted something from women to heal that wound. That didn't work so well.
But, I never did uncover the yang side of the story. Like Father's Day, as opposed to Mother's Day, it never seemed as big of a deal. However, I have considered making one up. If I did, Star Sperm is the working title. In this version, I'd learn about my alien origins from a journal, translated into English and clandestinely delivered to me by an unnamed galactic benefactor. In it, my spacefaring father justified his experiment of impregnating an Earth native.
I probably will never write it. Who really needs another manifesto on the virtues of irresponsibility? Still, it would be easier to write than to find the right forest and the precise location where the other side of the family tree has grown. Besides, I don't think I can afford any more family drama, nor karma.
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Who Dad?!
Science FictionAfter a revealing search for his birth mother, Lee declined to pursue the paternal side of the story. Little did he know how the fate of the planet itself was wrapped up in his own star-crossed origin. Only through the unexpected appearance of an al...
