I’ve been thinking about life, love and monogamy lately. I know that as civilized humanoids we are bound by convention to find a mate and stick with him[i]. But in truth, how realistic is this? We all know that no matter how committed we are to a relationship we are all guilty at one time or another of being attracted to other specimens. Propriety dictates that though this happens, our interactions with these ‘others’ be limited to simple ogling and nothing else. Sure, our base desires to procreate with as many people as we possibly can and thereby propagate the species in inherent in us, but now we have rules and more importantly limited budgets and we can’t just bandy our willies erm, willy nilly.
So where do we draw the line? I think we can all accept that it’s morally unjust to promise to exclusively be with one person and then not stick to the rules. But then that whole tree falling in a forest thing comes to play. What we don’t know doesn’t hurt us. So is it better to indulge in a little hanky panky on the side for the sake of maintaining the relationship? Or should we just gird our loins metaphorically and figuratively and stay frustratingly faithful? I’m sure there are plenty of people who would not even consider this as a dilemma. People who are quite happy with whoever they are with, and have no desire to blur the lines. And to them I say good on you; you obviously have something rare and special and that’s great.
But even these so called committed people, sure they maybe pure in deed but are they as pure in thought? And really, do we even need to be? We are designed to be attracted to people with characteristics that we find pleasing. And we shouldn’t feel wracked with guilt every time we are. I don’t think this argument can have one absolute conclusion. This is probably one we’re going to wrestle with till the asteroid hits[ii].
[i] or her, but I shall use “him” from now on since I can’t be arsed to type him/her
[ii] Of course we’re going to snuff it crushed under a giant asteroid. What was good for the dinosaurs is jolly well good for us.
