It takes two

As stated in The Family: a Proclamation to the World, there are two essential elements to any marriage: a man, and a woman.  Well, I've got one part for sure, the problem is finding the second part.  I'm a little bit slow at this part.  (No comments from the peanut gallery please about whether I might be slow in other areas as well.)  It took me a long time to realize that I was spending about 98% of my time with women and/or married men.  While I enjoy the company of both those groups, neither of them include prospects for the second ingredient of my marriage recipe.  And the 2% of my time where I was actually around single men, they were mostly around the same vintage as my dad.  I love my dad, but I'd prefer not to marry someone that old.  (On the other side of the coin, I'd prefer not to marry someone young enough to be my son.)

I have now resolved to change my ways.  I decided to volunteer on the planning committee for my regional single adult conference, thinking that would be a good way to meet people.  And it has been - I've met at least 10 new women, and exactly 2 new men.  Hmmm, does that male/female ratio seem familiar to any of you?  It's a good thing that was not my only strategy for change.  Instead of playing my team sports in women's leagues, I have joined a co-ed league.  I will also be trying activities that are not gender specific, or that actually require people of both genders (ball-room dancing anyone?).  While recognizing that not all of the males in these activities will necessarily be single, the benefits of this change of direction should be manifold.  Firstly, it will increase the number of single men in my acquaintance.  It will also increase the amount of time I spend in the company of single men.  I will be able to dust of my "interacting with males" social skills that have been sitting on a shelf in the closet for far too long.  And I will be able to watch and learn from the other single women involved as they flirt with whatever single men are there.

I'm not anticipating that any of the men I meet at these activities will be members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which may lead some of you to wonder how this change of direction fits with my earlier statement regarding dating/marrying non-members.  It's all about networking - more on that in a future post.