memes

My divorce was nine years ago. I got remarried a whopping five days after my divorce (...because that was the statutory minimum time; my ex-spouse had dragged their feet so long with a divorce they initiated that I'd had three serious relationships, met someone, gotten proposed to, and was ready to get married before the divorce was complete). I can say without reservation that my current partner is leaps and bounds better than my ex-partner. I've long ago accepted that many people that said they were friends were not friends, even if it still sticks in my throat. In the time since my divorce, I've lost an average of 1.1 cats per year, and it never gets easy to hold someone that's been a friend and companion for over a decade as they take their last breath.

Am I okay? I'm as okay as I ever get. I've been through therapy multiple times, and I'd probably still go to therapy if insurance was affordable.

Do I have friends? Not really. If I make plans with people too far in advance, they forget and make other commitments. If I try to make plans too late, they're already booked. It's possible that I'm simply unlikeable; I tend to lean that way.

My only point was that, anecdotally, this is the experience that a lot of men have when they try to be emotionally vulnerable and honest with their male friends. Perhaps Gen Z isn't getting this kind of shit; maybe they're able to be more emotional. I kind of doubt it though, because young Gen Z men are trending far more conservative than Millennials, and conservatism isn't friendly towards emotional intimacy among men. I hope that they do better than my generation did.