Cynics Unlimited

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I’ll be incommunicado for a few days (like many), so keep it civil and adhere to the holiday cheer!

Like many men before me, and no doubt many after me, Cynapse is about to experience one of life’s turn of events. Since many of my readers have experienced similar events, I would like to take a look back at the road many of us have travelled up to this point. Of course, as a man, I can only talk about these turns of events from a male point of view – but I imagine they are similar to what women experience.

For young men, the first major turn of events in life is usually when they finish high school and head off to college or to some sort of on-the-job-training. It is a special time, the twenties, when life seems more carefree (even as the student loans stack up) and you don’t have to think about settling down. Your time is spent with classes, studying and party time – and not necessarily in that order. Then, before you know it, that event is over and you have to find a job to support yourself. Yet, even at that point, you rarely think about settling down. You just enjoy working at the new job during the day and taking in the club scene during the night.

However, as thirty approaches, something happens. You discover that the night scene doesn’t have the same interest it used to have. You know that because, when you walk into a club now, you discover that not every woman there is interested in you (even if they weren’t before, you deluded yourself they might be) and, anyway, you find you would rather be sitting in a quiet lounge somewhere, where you can hear what you and your date are saying.

As well, somewhere through the twenties, you see your friends and co-workers getting married and rather than office chatter about sex and how drunk they were on the weekend, they start talking about kids and mortgages.

And, judging by the uncharacteristic moping and Charlie-Brown-esque self pity of my older male friends and their strange dating adventures, it seems that if a guy decides to marry and settle down around the time he is turning 30, it is not a day too soon.

Yes, fellow bloggers and readers, you have probably guessed by now, I am talking about myself.

Cynapse, the ultimate cynic, is getting married in two month’s time, a day after I turn that magical settling down age of 30.

Perhaps it might explain why I have been so busy lately and why so few posts have seen the light of day. In addition to a heavy work load – as Jack at JN says, growing my career — there have also been all the things that go with meeting family and making plans.

It is, without a doubt, a major turn of events for me and my wife-to-be, and we both intend to enjoy ourselves. It is interesting that, in the past, like so many young men, I thought of marriage as a fun-crusher. Now, it seems like a natural progression.