This is the mixed media blog of James Foreman. He writes things.

Favorite topics include art, history, modern life, pop culture, dating, sex, atheism, science, stories, whimsy, magic, writing and self-deprecation.

You can read a fiction story he wrote in the bestselling Machine of Death anthology, a true story he wrote in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette or a funny thing he wrote for McSweeney's.

He's working on a novel. It's going okay.

I’ve been planning on writing something in praise of marriage

But I don’t think I’m the best man for that particular job. I was only married for six months, and it was a very rough bunch of years that followed.

But I’m still not convinced that marriage is a negative experience. Despite the bad feelings I have about it, I actually LIKED being married. I liked the certainty that in all the world, no matter what happened, I knew that at least one person would be there with me. Marriage was something I could plant my feet on and get some leverage against the cold, careless universe.

But then again, it turned out that this certainty wasn’t actually certain at all. The right pressure at the right spot made the whole thing crumble, and I never saw it coming.

Like anybody who’s been through a traumatic experience, I’m deeply afriad that it will happen again. I’m like a guy who lost a lot of money the first time he played with stocks - I’m wary of investing that much in something that’s just as likely to bite me in the ass. I’ve BEEN bitten before, and it’s not something I want to repeat.

So my post-marriage relationships suffer. I’m not sure when I’ll feel like extending myself again, or investing a lot of myself again, if ever. But I do know that marriage is a distinct possibility. I haven’t ruled it out.

But maybe I’ll think thrice before doing it.

And hope I don’t get hurt.

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