Albino Monday: Magpie spotted in Coulsdon.
Now we’re cookin’: Mashed potatoes and gravy, on tap.
Today’s long read is Selfishness as Virtue, by Benjamin Schwartz. It’s about adults living alone and the question about how selfish this is. And even though I’ve been one for 17 years, I was amazed to find out that 50 percent of American adults are single and one in seven live alone. I’m a guy in both categories, and I sometimes find myself happy to be on my own and free as I could be, and other times sad that I don’t have someone to share my life with completely. Mostly I’m ambivalent. Although my house isn’t huge, it’s much too big for just one man and his dog. And I think that’s where the social morality issue comes in. In early America, and in developing nations, few people could live the way I do, but today millions do. Financially, it’s a struggle. But I do it anyway. Socially I can get away with it because I date regularly and have a support system of friends and coworkers. It also doesn’t hurt that I have a business that occupies an absurd amount of my time. I suspect this won’t last forever.
I haven't read "Going Solo", but Mr. Schwartz seems awfully defensive in his review of it. Since having families and children is a good thing for society, he is appalled that anyone might ever suggest that doing otherwise can also be acceptable. Oddly, he even criticizes a book on being single and living alone because it "never addresses the topic of childrearing"...wth?
Posted by: TOS | Monday, July 23, 2012 at 09:32 PM
love this site – it's a great blog – may i suggest you get an rss feed.
Posted by: Margaret Garcia | Thursday, July 26, 2012 at 01:37 AM