[Bella’s intro: If you have not yet read Part 1 from guest blogger and Navy veteran Roger Morris, you can find it here. Now, on to Part 2 and the conclusions, with my thanks to Roger Morris!]
[Bella’s intro: Recently, a retired Navy veteran, Roger Morris, wrote to say that while he believed there was some singlism in the Navy, he also thought there were advantages to being a Navy single. I asked if he would elaborate on his perspective and share his wisdom with “All Things Single (and More)” readers and he very kindly agreed. In fact, he has so much to say that I’m presenting his essay in two parts. This is the first. Many thanks to you, Roger Morris, for the time you took to do this important research and writing. By the way, readers, see all that red on the map image accompanying this post? It shows all the places Roger Morris has been!]
Mid-February is supposed to be all about couples – treacly, dewey-eyed, Valentine’s Day lover couples. In a phenomenon that even surprised me, this February the media has been all about singles – and mostly in a good way.
Check out the image below for a contrast between the rise of singles in the United States over the past half-century, and the second-class citizenship of those same single people with regard to benefits and protections. Thanks to the UK infographics group for creating the graphic.
Solo dwellers, we have our book! Eric Klinenberg’s book, Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone, will be published tomorrow. My advanced copy is already dog-eared. At Living Single, I explained why I think this book will become a social science classic, read by students, scholars, and smart readers everywhere for years to come. At my Single at Heart blog, I shared 12 of the surprising facts you can learn about living alone from Going Solo.
[Bella’s intro: I do not know Laura Backes, but when she sent me this essay, I liked it and thought some “All Things Single (and More)” readers would appreciate it as well. For future reference, though, I will reiterate the point I have often made that I especially welcome posts that speak both to single women and single men.
I do like this topic, and Laura Backes has inspired me to reprint my own take on “having it all” – an excerpt from Singled Out. I’ll post that sometime soon. (Here it is. I posted it at my "Single at Heart" blog at PsychCentral.) I hope others will also share what “having it all” or a sense of balance means to them.]
A Balanced Woman
By Laura Backes
When Singled Out was first published, I had a fantasy. I guess you could call it small-time, but had it ever happened, I would have been thrilled. I always wanted to walk onto an airplane and see someone reading my book.
I love featuring voices other than mine here at “All Things Single (and More).” Although I read widely about single life, think critically, study the academic journals, and do my own original research, my perspective is limited by my own life experiences. So, even though I always appreciate hearing from people who share my point of view, I also greatly value those whose single lives have been very different.
What can you possibly learn about a country from your first trip there that lasts just a few days? Maybe nothing representative, but I’ll share my observations anyway. I already posted about the professional experience over at Living Single, Single-at-Heart in Holland, so this is the more quirky stuff.
[Bella’s intro: In my last post, I gave a name to the series that has actually been ongoing for some time: Perspectives on Single Life. The first entry posted specifically under that name is from Maya Bernadett. She takes on the pressure to just settle, a topic that, unfortunately, continues to be timely. There are a number of lines from this essay that I especially appreciate, but I think my favorite is the very last one. No cheating – don’t skip ahead to the end! Thanks, Maya, for sharing your essay with the readers of “All Things Single (and More).”]
