"I thought we signed up for the same thing... I thought our relationship was perfectly clear. You are an escape. You're a break from our normal lives. You're a parenthesis"
I was not in the mood to write a FFF this week. I have another Shannon post slated for Monday but no other relevant thoughts for the end of the week. So here is some music I have come across recently. I am absolutely addicted to YouTube and love to come across rare performances.
Here are some of my favorite ladies:
Awesome group of musicians accompanying Tina Turner on a Phil Specter song. Wouldn't it be great if love could always be this innocent.
Bow down to the alter of Aretha and say Hallelujah! Great way to transition a Simon & Garfunkle song into a religious experience.
Linda Ronstadt with the Eagles, enough said - love country rock. I imagine a lot women are around this blogging world because they feel this way.
It feels weird saying I love Dolly Parton but she is a great writer (rare for a country singer). This is a cover of a classic bluegrass song though but it shows her range. Interesting juxtaposition between thinking you caught your lover cheating and finding they were not!
OK, with all this veneration of women I have to throw in one evil woman song.
Here is Shann.., I mean Christine's tune by the Flying Burrito Brothers. The Flying Burrito Brothers were an offshoot of the Byrds and inspired a lot of modern country rock or outlaw country of the 70's.
Just a happy little song by the Stone Roses (“She’s a Waterfall”) I used to like way back when in college. I was thinking about it the other day. I do like waterfall songs, that one by TLC is great as well. Although the TLC song has a lot of analogies that should be interpreted as a cautionary tale to anyone treading the infidelity waters.
I wouldn't suggest jumping off here
I started this as just a regular post about the next time Sandra and I met but soon started thinking about other things. An e-mail to another blogger also got me onto this thought process. I think both of the waterfall songs talk about the sanity or insanity of taking leaps off waterfalls or of faith. In fact water is often a common analogy in songs about relationships. One of my favorite country songs has the lyrics “you better look before you leap, still water runs deep and there won’t always be someone there to pull you out.” So after the fact I will say this post is about whether or not to take leaps of faith with respect to sex and relationships and what are the outcomes.
But first some housekeeping, so life was again good in mid-September. Sandra and I had “consummated our affair” and everything else was OK as well. Meaning work was good, kids good, my favorite football teams were starting to play better, Shannon was traveling a lot, and Sandra seemed willing to have sex again or at least see me again after seeing me without cloths.
I did see Sandra the next week at a new place, a quaint out of the way country inn that she had suggested we visit. We had a nice lunch. Toward the end I did mention that I had gotten a reservation at a hotel close by “just in case.” Sandra was very apologetic and said she would be happy to go but she had the “red menace.” I hated that she felt apologetic because I certainly was not upset, I was just glad to spend time with her. After lunch we went for a ride through the area, talked, and just enjoyed the time together. As usual it was mostly her talking about her dogs, antique stores in the area she liked, etc and me listening contentedly.
OK, so now my attempt at segueing to some sort of meaning for the day. So, here’s the segue.
I think a lot of times we put too much pressure on ourselves related to sex. And by that I mean pressure by not having it rather than pressure to have it. Often relationships don’t really begin until you get past it. It’s nice when you just enjoy spending time with someone without having to think about “will it be this time, will it be next time, what do I have to do or say to get her to have sex with me, do I want to have sex with her.” Too much stress, it’s nice to get the 600# gorilla out of the room.
That is a big problem in my marriage now. Shannon and I have painted ourselves into a corner. From her perspective anything I do now is about getting sex. And you know what, it probably is. That’s not what I want it to be, I would love to do something nice and it not be about getting sex. But unfortunately when you allow yourself to build it into this humongous issue it just gets out of proportion. And so you have the paradox of “if we have sex will it just be about sex or will it lead to better intimacy.” Unfortunately like most things in life you don’t know until you try. And how you feel about it is a matter of perspective. If you find that it was just about sex for your partner you could feel slighted that you gave yourself to a selfish person or you could just feel like you just made a great decision that gave you valuable relationship information that will now make you feel better about leaving or at least not having sex anymore with that person. Someone I once know and respect upon finishing a Burger King hamburger said out load “well, that’s one less hamburger I have to eat in my lifetime.” So if you do it and it sucks at least you don’t have to do it again and you know not to go down that road again.
So I guess what I’m saying if your asking yourself to do or not to do you are really going to jump off a waterfall regardless of your choice. Certainly sex with someone new (or someone old and it’s been awhile) is jumping off a waterfall. But delaying is just jumping off another waterfall that just keeps getting bigger the longer you don’t jump. And, in my opinion, delaying the opportunity to spend a great day with someone when sex isn’t going to be on the menu.
Of course I’m not saying you should have sex in any circumstances. If, upon reflection, you are simply not attracted for physical, emotional, or any other reasons then don’t do it just to shut someone up. If you think there is any chance, give them the candid actionable things they need to do to attract you. But if there isn’t anything actionable they can do then make it clear that it ain’t going to happen so that each of you can move forward.
But if it’s a 50/50 type deal take advice from “Shit My Dad Says” - "Look, we're basically on earth to shit and fuck. So unless your job's to help people shit or fuck, it's not that important, so relax." A few years from now you’ll probably forget bad sex but don’t cheat yourself out of something that might be good.
Just a different sort of take on things – I’d love to know your perspective!
Anyway, at the end of the day as we parted Sandra and I made plans to meet the following week at the same time but down the road at the hotel rather than the country inn J Stay tuned for that post, I guarantee it won’t be so thoughtful!
