One of my favorite quotes of all time is one that some women find offensive. Interestingly enough. It’s by Oscar Wilde and it states, “A man’s face is his autobiography. A woman’s face is her work of fiction.” I’m sure you get where he was going with that.
I thought about that quote when I read an article that I will include the link to (here); however, due to the fact that the website decided to use, well, an inappropriate word for this site, I’ll leave the title out. I actually contemplated sharing it period because it’s not your pastor’s article. Not by a long shot (so if expletives offend, you might not want to go there). I think it’s a good idea, though because the anonymous author provided some really good points about dating. *Specifically* sex on a first date (something that more and more people are engaging in). Here’s just one excerpt:
When you first meet someone, she said, you don’t actually see them. You see a flimsy construction of their personality, created by your interpretation of the signals available. The way they make eye contact. How they interact with the bartender/waiter/homeless man asking you for change. The facts they choose to divulge about themselves. Because you have no other point of reference, every little detail resonates with added significance. Your mind, faced with a scarcity of information, is forced to create a projection of them.
It is fiction.
The fiction fades over time, as you get to know someone, she said. You witness them in different moods, interacting in multiple environments. Your construction of their personality deepens, nudges closer to reality. But on that first meeting, while you may get a peek, or even a full throttled gaze at their character, it is impossible to see the real person in front of you. It is a grand mirage.
The mirage is sexy. But herein lies the danger. The potential for a schism to exist between the mirage and reality is huge. The probability of being disappointed is gigantic. That disappointment is compounded when intimacy is involved. You sleep with a stranger. You feel like you know them. But you likely don’t at all.
Sleeping with fiction. Sleeping with a mirage. LOVE THAT!!!
Couple this along with an article that I read re: only 39% of Russian women wanting a man that’s *reliable* and the Chicago Tribune asking last week “Is marriage still a significant benefit to women” (my vote is that as long as the Bible exists, that would be a resounding yes!!!), I thought that it provided us with a lot to think about. If more and more people are engaging in casual sex and less and less people are getting married, what do you find to be the purpose (if any) of dating anymore?