Who's really treating you like a little kid?

In a previous blog entry (April 22) I posed this little scenario: Let's pretend I hand you a little book to read--say it's only ten pages long. As I hand it to you I tell you that reading it will bring about one of the most normal, pleasant, and potentially gratifying experiences you will ever experience in your entire life. I also emphasize that it's a story you are supposed to prepare for, anticipate, and get excited about for your future. However, I similarly warn you how that if you choose to read the little book now, so you can experience the tale's pleasant affects now, at this time in your life, it will undoubtedly mean you won't be able to experience the level of satisfaction you could have had. It will also mean, if you read it now, that you won't be able to replicate and prolong the level of satisfaction you do experience in the way you would have had you waited. OK. So, what will you do with the book?

You're probably thinking about how obviously transparent that little story sounds? Am I right? And that line of thinking may, in turn, lead you to wonder if I'm thinking of you as a little five-year old child struggling to save your Christmas candy cane. Seriously, no, that's not my intent because if that's true then we're all "little kids." We all struggle with temptations like this.

So I can affirm to you that we're all candidates for this kind of temptation. Whether it is the explosion of a minty Christmas candy cane on our tongue's taste buds or the release endorphins to the pleasure centers of our brain; we're all potential targets.

Targets? If you pose my scenario to your friends and neighbors most all of them would probably report their desire to wait--although you would get some discussion. It's a fun scenario posing a relatively tough situation. I think everyone would agree, too, that some people find resisting temptations like these harder than do other people. That's the way life and people work.

But all-in-all here's where I'm going with this: we've never lived in a societal environment that is more manipulated than the one we're presently living in. That's a fact! And how does that fact play into this discussion and what are it's implications for dating and romance--and you? Give it some consideration and we'll continue this discussion in the next blog entry.

In the meantime be safe, have fun, and be smart!

Dick