postal scrotum

The Nomad writes in re: my bar-hopping post:

BigHo wrote: "I know that the thought of straying from a significant other would be repellent: something inside me curdles at the thought. I can understand what might drive a man to stray, but I don't think I have it in me to do so. Loyalty actually means something to me."

I've heard that said in various ways a number of times, by a number of people, both male and female, yet I've seen what I thought were the best of them fall under the right/wrong conditions. Fidelity. Loyalty. Friendship. Love. Trust.

Words that are taken lightly these days by a lot of folks.

When I first came to Korea, my first assignment was with one of the fighter squadrons here on base, and we had to go down to the Phillipines 2 times a year for an exercise called Cope Thunder which lasted about 4 weeks, total. It never ceased to amaze me how many "happily married" guys would go down there and end up getting a different bar girl every night or every week. And they gave me shit because I refused to do the same.

This may sound simple and that's ok by me, but there are only 3 things I take seriously in life and they are (in no particular order) marriage, friendship, and fatherhood. The first 2 are, in my opinion, almost the same, because the same things apply - loyalty, trust, and to a certain point, love.

I've been together with my wife for over 18 years and have never been unfaithful, and to the best of my knowledge, neither has she. And yeah, I'm a dirty old man who likes to ogle at the babes in their mini skirts but I think my wife would be more worried if I didn't ogle...

Our marriage follows a rather simple formula, I think. We're best friends. That's pretty much it. No startling revelations, nothing I could write a chicken soup for married folks book about. If hard pressed, I doubt I could tell you exactly what's made our marriage work the way it has.

Hey, you could always fill up a backpack with books or bricks and lug that baby up the mountain if the trek is getting too easy for you. Just a thought.

:)

Nomad

I did a rather slow walk up Namsan on Sunday because I was taking pictures every 100 meters. I promised you all a small 100K celebration on Monday, so I'll be offering my readers a bit of foodblogging and a virtual Namsan hike-- 36 pictures' worth of the hike alone. If you're on a slow computer, don't even bother. Pics'll take a million years to load.

Technically, it's Monday here in Korea. It's also my understanding that "spring forward" happened in the US, so we're back to a 13-hour difference with DC. I'll be putting up my pics later in the day. Right now, it's almost 12:30, and I'm gonna sleep. Try this blog again in the morning around, oh, 11AM, Seoul time.

One comment about the above email: the Nomad gives me hope. Having followed his blog for a few months, I think he's a good man. His wife and daughter are lucky people.

And he's not alone in being faithful, either. My parents have stayed together through thick and thin, and the parents of my three best friends in the US have also stayed faithfully together. Infidelity isn't something that happens to us; it's something we allow to happen. Don't listen to the cynics and pessimists: all men are not the same.

And while you're waiting for my pics, Rory also reacted to my bar-hopping post. See here for a pic of me in a compromising pose.


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