The Power (and Fun) of Single
The Secret Is Out. Single is Great!
Society is beginning to realize something us long-time, extremely single people have known all along.
It’s fun to be single. And, I’m not talking single bars and all-night parties. Although I do admit, I had a really, really, really good time in my younger days. I could never run for public office. ‘nuf said. Thank GOD they didn’t have Facebook back then.
Although it would have been nice to have voice mail; I might not have wasted all those hours hanging around all casual, waiting for a guy to call…(Remember? Oh, I know you did it too. And sometimes you picked up the phone to make sure it had dial tone.) But I digress…
ANYWAY, single has become legit! We’re no longer those poor, sad people who droop home to dusty little apartments to eat cold cereal every night. (Most of us never were.) We women no longer sit sadly manless, reading goofy books on how to land a man. Quick! Any man! Settle, for GOD’s SAKE! (Well, most of us don’t. We’re busy doing things, with and without men.)
Even David Brooks wrote a column, The Talent Society, about the power of single.
Today, the fast flexible and diverse networks allow the ambitious and the gifted to surf through amazing possibilities. They are able to construct richer, more varied lives. They are able to enjoy interesting information-age workplaces and then go home and find serenity in a one-bedroom apartment.
Of course, many of us live in houses (that we bought all on our own.) Mine has three bedrooms…And I work at home…But you get the idea.
As, Rebecca Tuhus-Dubow notes, in Are Women Better At Living Alone?
The nature of living alone has changed thoroughly over the past century, in ways that make social connections essential. At one time, it was an opportunity for reclusiveness. Religious ascetics and misfits like Thoreau fled human company to commune with God or nature; otherwise, people of all ages tended to lived with family. For women in the early 1900s, living independently was particularly rare.
Life IS truly full of amazing possibilities. The older I get, the more there are, since I have the perspective to recognize them and the experience (and freedom) to turn possibility into opportunity.
It ain’t always easy being single, but it sure is great.
P.S. Thoreau walked home most days to eat lunch. His mom did his laundry. He didn’t exactly flee to rugged solitude.