Tópico: Dating for All the Wrong Reasons

[Luis Dantas]

By Donna Freitas  
 
 
 
It's Friday. You have a 7 p.m. date scheduled with someone you've had your eye on for a while—he’s smart, good-looking, and funny. Just for kicks, you visit a fortune-teller for the inside scoop on your future with this guy. At first, the seer's words lull you into what feels like eternal bliss: this date has great potential. The two of you will fall deeply in love, enjoy each other's company, challenge each other, and have countless afternoons filled with laughter.

You sigh. He's got to be The One. Finally.
 
But she doesn't stop there, and your steadily growing excitement is suddenly crushed like that scary bug you saw on the bathroom floor the night before. Apparently, after two years of relationship paradise, something will shift. Eventually, you will go your separate ways. Your once fluttering heart drops like a stone through your body.

Now, of course you'd never really go to a fortune-teller to determine the outcome of a date. But pretend this woman knows that by going on this date, you're inviting a temporary relationship into your life--a relationship that is loving and caring for a time, but inevitably doomed to end.

As 7 p.m. approaches and your heart is inconveniently still residing somewhere in the region of your shoes, you waver about the evening ahead. Should you cancel your date? Stave off the wave of pain destined to follow the love you'll share?

After all, who needs more heartbreak?

Unfortunately for many singles, if someone could give us a damage/risk assessment for every possible date, we'd probably choose to remain at home alone in front of the TV instead of going out with anyone. Lurking behind the innocent question "Do you want to go for coffee?" lies the hope that this date will turn out to be a soul mate, that you will be compatible, and that you will build a future together.

Between faith and culture, we tend to receive a lethal dose of disapproval regarding our dating lives: dating for the sake of dating isn't good enough. For many religious people, dating is viewed only as a path to marriage. We too often view each person we go out with as a potential marriage partner, and quickly pass off potential dates because we don't think they're "marriage material." Sometimes, painful breakups are even viewed as a sign of God’s condemnation of dating and punishment for sinful behavior. As we grow older, this view of dating becomes more pronounced, and dating for the sake of marriage takes on greater urgency.

Our culture's obsession with marriage only furthers this idea that dating should be for the sake of marriage. Even the television series "Sex and the City," which usually seemed like a weekly paean to dating for the sake of dating, ended with all four of its characters finding a man to marry, or at least finding "the one".

This view of dating can easily make us forget that dating has spiritual value in and of itself. We need to stop focusing on its potential for marriage and accept its temporary nature. Dating can help us to grow spiritually--if we allow it to.

(continua, confiram o website abaixo)


http://beliefnet.com/story/160/story_16055_1.html

[Galileo]

If you want to date for spiritual reasons, date a nun! (monja?)

 :cruz:    :cruz:

[Rodion]

nun = freira.
monja = female monk.

[Galileo]

Thanks, but what is a female monk? I think we'd call her a nun in English.

[uiliníli]

Thanks, but what is a female monk? I think we'd call her a nun in English.

I think a nun is specifically a catholic female monk. A monja may follow any religion.

[Galileo]

I've heard of Catholic monks and Buddhist monks (they don't have women).

Are there other kinds of monks?

[Rodion]

dunno. never heard of any monjas, although knowing the word.  maybe it was created  just to give monk a feminine version.

[Buckaroo Banzai]

Perhaps they're post-op monks of any kind