I am single. Not alone mind you for I am always in the care of something much more soothing and life-changing than anything you could offer anyways. But yes single. I have been single in fact for the vast majority of my life. If put into numbers I have been single roughly 27 years 3 months and 15-16 days give or take. A lot rides on whether Emily and I were truly dating in six grade of which I have doubt. I am of course staying above the various quasi-relationships that litter my past the ones that reside in dating limbo and defy any lucid attempt to classify them. I owe a blanket apology to all who had to deal with the muddle, sorry all. With some embarrassment I must admit now I suppose that I am 28. How incredible that I desire and seek out a thing that seems so foreign to me to begin with. Between Hollywood plots and personal testimony lies the reality that I seek. Single, how I long to change it, single by the works of my hands. Gosh, that was fatalistic was it not and a bit on the dramatic side. It never comes down to my choices thank goodness but to the sweet inclination of someone with an infinitely better idea of what is going to work for me. Then I am ok with being single. Single is just alright. But dating works to. I think it works. I know marriage works because I see the paragons of its positive influence all around me. But that sadly is point 1b with dating lying one step above at 1a in the hierarchy. If it were so easy with one eraser stroke I would strike 1a from the record. I would put down the horse and claim the cart, do away with the eggs altogether and deal with the hatchlings, and leap without giving a thought to looking. The other refugees who I run with are all poised at the edge of the same minefield. It is like owning no green or blue property-laden with hotels-and being handed the dice precariously sitting on the Water-Works. So is dating to those who are out of practice or in my case untried to begin with. But I do not speak for them I speak for the people who hear me and are right where I am and know right where I want to go, those people are me and my creator. And me wonders just how much of a grasp it has on things most days. So then let it be known that I do not surrender but on the other hand do not ride roughshod into battle. I am like Switzerland, neutral in dogma and pomp but with a hand in all that profits my path. What is a mostly bleak history as it stands is still tinged with excitement in the chase and heartbreak in the fall.

Then call me single, not as a sentence but as a prelude. Call me content not as a segue but a peaceful foundation. Call me looking not because I am desperate but because of hope.

Therefore take heart friends for single can not regress outside of passing on to a better place and progressing leads to two. Call it the Theory of Positive Relationality.