From: tlode@nyx.cs.du.edu (trygve lode)
Subject: Re: Credibility...
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix @ U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 93 07:21:03 GMT

In article <ewright.727853980@convex.convex.com> ewright@convex.com (Edward V. Wright) writes:
>In <1993Jan23.061659.17967@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> tlode@nyx.cs.du.edu (trygve lode) writes:
>
>>In a strict sense, people don't actually enjoy being single or not being
>>single--they enjoy the experiences and the emotions that go along with
>>each state.  However, the experiences and emotions of being single are
>>not the negation of the experiences and emotions of being non-single 
>>(in fact, there's a fair amount of overlap); 
>
>Well, the experiences and emotions that are common to the two states
>can hardly affect your preference, can they?  At least try to think
>logically, Trygve.

I do try--Ed, you'll just have to remember that not all of us out here
in net.land have attained your level of mental development and, in dealing
with us, hopefully you'll be willing to be patient with our efforts to
express ourselves.  

Unfortunately, it's very difficult to separate the feelings and experiences
one has when single and when unsingle into categories that are either 
"common" or "negations of feelings/experiences in the other state" without
having an awful lot spilling onto the floor because it doesn't fit in
either box.  One can enjoy the feelings of autonomy and freedom one has
when single--but that doesn't mean that those feelings are absent when
unsingle or, for that matter, that they're even the same but differ in
degree.  How one interacts with MOTAS at parties is likely to be different
to some degree if one is single instead of unsingle, but neither can that
be categorized as either "exactly the same" or "so different that they have
nothing in common."

Back to the topic, just for a moment, and using a small example that
relates to myself, I happen to enjoy sleeping with someone, but I also
happen to enjoy sleeping alone--in the first case, I might thing to myself,
"it's nice to have someone to snuggle with" while in the second, I might
think, "it's nice to have the bed all to myself."  I don't find anything
strange or contradictory in this, and I'm still unable to see why you do. 

>I know, that's asking a lot for someone who works in television. :-)

Yeah, but at least I'm in show business.

Trygve   (Memo to myself:  have the casting couch reupholstered with
          more durable fabric next time.)
--
"After all, you never know when something's going to happen like the
 time on the Tibetan railway that Isambard (you remember, the guy with
 the duelling scar than ran all the way down to his navel, around to his
 left hip, and finally wandered down to somewhere under his right sock)
 found out that I was carrying the deeds to the mineral rights for
 Winchester Cathedral and alerted SEPULCHRE (good thing I knew about
 that trick elbow of his and managed to toss him off the train using a
 particularly vigorous version of the Heimlich maneuver) so that I
 couldn't risk returning to my hotel room and had to make it to Istanbul
 with nothing more than the bottle of Worstershire sauce I'd picked up
 from the dining car."