A Ship (4 of 5?): Normal.

From the same, p. 174:

Though this last phase is also considered normal, society definitely neither advocates or condones it - in fact, scarcely acknowledges its existence. In this stage teh couple becomes disillusioned, bored, miserable, and ripe either for "breakup" or coma.

"Who said this progression is 'normal,' that this is the shape of love?" I asked myself. "And who decided what constitutes 'the real world'? The same guys who brought you Vietnam, Hustler, chicken factories, and an ozone layer that rivals swiss cheese," I replied...

. . .

A Ship (3 of 5?): Singleness.

From the same, pp. 145-147:

It seemed to me that women were nearly apologizing when they described themselves this way, as if being one-whole instead of one-half were not legitimate or healthy, but instead something one hoped soon to recover from. It was as if they were not really living but simply on hold until they plugged into someone else, became one-half of a couple, and turned on their lives again. I knew they would never think to call themselves "single" if they didn't accept coupledom as the natural and therefore more desirable state - a state I now dubbed "coupledumb."

We are taught to accept the menstream assumption that one-half is better than one-whole because two is necessary for oppression...

I think men took our worthy and natural desires and, in a truly diabolical way, turned them against us - making us, under threat of death, do to one another in the name of love what most of us would be too merciful to do to someone we hated.

It is phallocracy that insures our obedience by lying, "When you have a wonderful moment with someone, you must quickly capture and own her so that you can be assured of having more such moments. If you don't get possession of her, someone else will, and you will be left with no one to touch and hold and love you." It is the fathers who continue to misname these feelings of powerlessness, scarcity, and desperation "love".

Realizing this, coupling began to look not merely dumb but deadly: CoupleDoom.

. . .

A Ship (2 of 5?): Marriages.

From the same, p. 122:

When I think about the hooplah over longevity of unions, all I have to do is look at my parents, at parents of friends, at high-school friends now thirty-five years married, to discover couples who, though they have stayed together because of legal, socially-demanded commitment, have been wretched with one another or numbed out for entire lifetimes. It's pretty discouraging to watch Lesbian and straight friends struggling to emulate that ghastly example.

I don't think they do it because they have seen so many wonderful marriages that they can't wait to follow suit. Denial and irrationality are classic evidence of brainwashing. Few, if any, discerning people have seen at close range many wonderful marriages - or at least marriages that *stayed* wonderful. You and I agree that what all of us have seen most often is loss of identity, dependency, eventual boredom, misery, dysfunction on all levels, disillusionment, betrayal, heartbreak, violence, and/or a deep, deadening despair that passes for contentment.

. . .

A Ship (1 of 5?): Parthenogenesis.

From (2nd-wave feminist) Sonia Johnson's "The Ship That Sailed Into the Living Room: Sex and Intimacy Reconsidered" (p. 97):

We [=women] not only have the unique power to create new human beings, but we have the power to create them ourselves without the assistance of men. Although knowledge that this is true is lost to conscious memory, I think that parthenogenesis still happens on occasion - by choice as well as by accident - and that we bore children parthenogenetically for hundreds of thousands of years at the beginning of human history... Men have always known that women do not need them for anything, and women have always known that men need them for everything.

. . .

Bracelet story (new details).

So, at the sex doc a few Tuesdays ago, the shortish bearded (white) guy who's a sub into BDSM went off on swingers again and how heteronormative they are, and he re-told his bracelet story:

At the swinger house party, people had different-colored bracelets, and the host was pressuring pretty much every woman to wear the color that signalled that they were bisexual.

Only, the BDSM guy went to ask, and no matter how much he pled, the host wouldn't give him one.

"I knew that no other guys would have one," he said, "But I wanted to wear one, as a statement."

An idea from a Latin student...

The lawyer who's learning Latin (who's a conservative Catholic) had an idea because of the discussion about the revision of the English translation of the Roman missal:

Each week in addition to what we're reading, he brings in a missal section and we work through it and produce a translation, and *then* after that look at the old and new translations.

How fun!

I told my mom and she loves the idea.

I might have a new Latin student!!!

I got contacted through the online ad that I post -

The (white) guy is younger and works in an office on campus, and has always wanted to learn Latin.

It looks like after Christmas, I'll meet with him once a week for 30min. to correct his homework and answer any questions he might have.

The money isn't great (he can't pay my asking price), but it's fair and easy!