A new meme

Apr 22, 2007

Situation Sunday 22 April 2007

I just found this new meme (this is its third week), and I think I'll enjoy this one. It isn't freeform, like Iterations, which I enjoy because it lets me pull inspiration from just about anywhere; but the questions encourage longer answers, so I get to think about my own responses and (hopefully) read some good, thought-provoking answers on other participants' sites. If nothing else, it reminds me to periodically re-examine my own viewpoints.

1. You are either married or been with someone a long time. Life is good. Not great, but good. You meet someone that you have a great connection to. You feel strong that this is your real “Soul Mate”. What do you do? If things are good with my current partner, this new person may turn out to be a friend...but how do I know if they're really going to be that much better a partner? I don't...so I'm not all too inclined to leave CP for NP. And I'm very unwilling to try and start 'something on the side' with NP. (I'm going to assume that CP and I are in a monogamous relationship. I know people who are poly, and who are both very happy; but that's not me.)
   
   There's something else to consider: I don't believe that a soul mate has to be one's sexual or life partner. It could be that friend you rarely see, but it takes you guys all of five seconds to get back in sync when you do meet again. It could be someone you see every day who knows you almost better than you know yourself...and you sometimes function as the other half of their brain. It could be the person you're interested in sexually, as well — but it just as equally could be someone with whom you have no sexual chemistry whatsoever.
2. You have inherited a large amount of money from a distant family member that you never even knew. You are the only one to get all of their fortune. They had children but do to a falling out they left them nothing. What do you do? In a perfect situation, I'd be able to tell which of the surviving children would benefit most from some of their parents' inheritance, and I'd offer to split it with them 30% to me, 70% to them (after all inheritance taxes had been paid). Since real life seldom works out quite that neatly, I'd pay any applicable taxes, then divide what was left equally between me and the children. I am not going to spend lots of time trying to figure out which children are single, married, have or do not have dependents...that's a huge drain on my time. I'm also not altruistic enough to completely pass on money that comes my way. I've had a fairly good life, I've done relatively well for myself, but money is a damn useful tool. (If the amount was less than $1000, I'd find some way to pass it completely over to the kids. If the amount was over...oh...one million after taxes, I'd keep no more than $100,000 for myself and pass the rest back to the kids. Money's a useful tool, but there's no reason to be absurdly greedy, even in cases of a windfall.)
3. Erase all sexual harassment, and legal laws protecting you. Could you, would you, have you slept your way to to the top? I haven't, and don't care to do so. I'm most comfortable with monogamy, and don't care to give others any kind of ammunition to use against me: loose morals, bad or indifferent sexual partner, et al — I doubt that I could convincingly act interested in casual sex, and unless the 'ladder rungs' were utterly oblivious, they'd notice...and would probably resent me for it, and thus the mechanism that would get me in to power would be used to get me out of power.
   
   Also, once I was “at the top”, I'd still have to deal with all the corporate bullshit. Nope, someone else can have it. (Seriously - you couldn't pay me enough to be a corporate VP. Wa-a-ay too much internal politicking for this Aspergers-gal to handle.)

Keywords: | Sunday | sex | relationships | memes | family |
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