Dating....or not.

Is it weird that a single 21 year-old college student would find himself saying the words, i don't want to date. It's true. I do not want to date. However I do want to spend time with a very nice young lady and get to know her a lot better. Basically I do want to date, but not really.

Well that makes a ton of sense doesn't it. Though it seems as if I'm just jerking chain, I'm actually being serious. What I want, there is seemingly no word for. Let me lay it out.

First let us look at the terms we know:

Dating: when two people become romantically involved; usually accompanied by some level of physical involvement.

Courting: when two people become close over time with the intent of one date being married; usually unaccompanied by physical involvement.

So, my desire is for something in the middle. I want to spend time with a wonderful girl, be there for her, and get to know her better. While I am human and have human desires, the true desire of my heart is to not have a physical aspect of the relationship that goes past hugging and holding hands. To put it bluntly, whether your getting busy kissing or getting busy......getting busy, it's going to ruin some aspect of your relationship. So if this looks, sounds, and feels like courting (and it does) then why not just call it courting.

REASONS!!!!!! Woohoo! Sweet clarity!!!

1.) I have neither the time, means, maturity, or any other necessary traits and resources to get married so why spend 2 to 3 years talking about it and going crazy.

2.) Sadly, our society has moved out of the era were you could walk up to a member of the opposite sex that you are well acquainted with and in so many words say, "I think I want to marry you, would you like to spend sometime figuring this out."

The 1950's gave us an era of prosperity and peace unheard of in the world in all the eras before (or just unprecedented). During that time american youth developed what was at the time a promiscuous for of flirtatious courting known as dating. Unlike courting, dating actually requires less more commitment to a person and less commitment to an standard of purity and virtue. Overtime, courting was integrated into dating as a stage or phase rather than a separate process altogether. Unfortunately this has led to a massive increase in drama in the world that threatens to have us overrun with teenage girls flailing abut in the streets and teenage boys playing call of duty and raging out with no rest breaks for months at a time.

Call me old-fashioned but I like the partial example of Bill Compton from True Blood. When he becomes interested in a local waitress he simply asks her, "may I call on you sometime." It's simple, you get the point across, and it's a hell of a lot more respectable than making sure you wait 'til the third date to make out.

So there it is in all of its twisted glory. Am I alone in this. Does anybody else feel this way.

THIS IS RADIO NOWHERE! IS THERE ANYBODY ALIVE OUT THERE?!?!?!.......thank you Bruce Springteen.......