(January 30,2012)
For a change, we'll do random tidbits from my life first and then reply to your emails. Hung out with Spencer again and had a weird convo with him about how it was utterly bizarre to me that I could enjoy hanging out with him and genuinely appreciate him as a person as much as I do and not be remotely distressed at the thought of him dating someone else. Certainly not nearly so distressed as I was at the thought of me not dating anyone else. Dang. The more I see of dating, the more I feel like nothing makes a great deal of sense.
Which is just marvelous, because I got called upon by the bishop to be part of a panel from the ward to discuss dating and relationships for our second and third hour lesson today in church.
Ha. Ha. Ha. At last count, number of people who, upon hearing of this decision, laughed or called into question the sanity of my bishopric: five. Sigh. The bishopric had everybody write down random dating questions, and then assembled a group of seven or eight of us to talk about it before church today to assure, as much as possible, that the lesson wouldn't devolve into a battle of the sexes. Pre-church discussion was actually quite marvelous. Great thoughts were shared, and I took up way more than my share of the floor. This, however, did not translate to church discussion.
Oh, such a painful two hours of church we all endured today....Everyone had something to say. Everyone took a good five minutes to share their thoughts. BLAAAAH. It was death. Someone afterwards suggested that the panel should have done all the talking. While that idea has many deficiencies (among them that I would for all intents and purposes be an abysmally non-representative mouthpiece for girls in the ward), it certainly would have saved us listening to eighty million sob stories of getting turned down and positively painful discussions of making out.
Ha, related. During before church discussion, bishop brought up the inevitable making out question (Which someone had conveniently written, "Is making out okay?" - Thanks, dude.) and said that he really wanted to discuss it, but that he didn't want to seem out of touch. He asked for suggestions. As everyone else seemed afraid to share what I feel is generally accepted knowledge, I bravely stepped forward.
"Honestly, Bishop," I said, somewhat haltingly, "I have to say that it is incredibly rare, in my experience, to know people who both date regularly and don't make out. Really, incredibly rare. While it is technically something that I have been told is not okay, I do not know very many people who abstain purely due to their own decisions."
While I was concerned that this would bring on a firestorm, it was calmly discussed that it would seem out-of-touch and ignorant to simply denounce making out for being bad (Because a majority so healthy it could run marathons does, in fact, make out on the regular and not feel bad about it), it had to be said that making out was dangerous territory, and that everyone should know that they're playing with fire when they make out. Not condoning, but not unaware that it's almost a universal practice. How I feel regarding this subject is a topic for another day. Besides, you probably already know that anyway. What is unfortunate is that for all this, the bishop gave his spiel, only to have his wife stand up afterwards, "I'd just like to congratulate all of you who haven't been in make-out sessions. I always told my children not to kiss while they were dating, and I really do not think that it is necessary to kiss when...."
And I honestly can't report what she said after that.
The wonderful thing was that I was, in fact, seated at the front, facing the entire ward, meaning that I got to watch about 98% of the wards' eyes widen in collective aghast....ment. tion? ness? Whatever.
Ha and the reason that Grant is weird is the fact that yes, he obviously wants some action, but he also enjoys my company and genuinely wants me to be his friend. All while really really not being interested. What the fuh? That is weird. Come on. And the fact that he flirted with as seeming sincerity as any genuinely interested boy I've ever known, only for me to hear him say that he'd never been interested and really, I was into him? Was kind of ground- and paradigm-shakingly insane, I tell you.
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