Adjust, Retry, Fail!

It happens to everyone: the instant you enter a relationship, you discover that fantasy and reality are made from two different fabrics. That is not a complaint. It just gets real. As in, she could be a poster girl, a magazine centerfold, a goddamned angel, but the guy with inside information (mornings) always knows better... Conversely, she gets to that point where she sees through all your b*llsh*t and manly posing. Still, you somehow like each other even more when all the artificial stuff falls away even despite the total annihilation of assumed givens by real hard facts.

Another point of departure:  you are two different beings and will inevitably tend to clash irreparably on some points of departure, including organized religion or lack thereof.

In those days I was a doctrinaire Atheist. I had already labeled Ailis a Pagan without really asking her, but as it turned out, she was only being a poet earlier on at the moment I formed those assumptions.

Now let it never be said that I lack the foresight and good sense to avoid religious arguments, but the topic came up somehow. I had just finished rationalizing away the technical aspects of Darwin's "man is a really old worm" theory. Ailis replied, "By so saying, you are insulting yourself." I had no effective counterclaim.

The discussion came to a consideration of the significance of good and evil, right and wrong. What is morality? This, surprisingly, was not in the middle of a Philosophy class. I talked and talked at length about the origin of cities, ordered society and the need for peace and harmony hence laws hence morality. Ailis blinked at me and called me "half a nerd, very unsexy."

Then she said, "God gave you the same brain which you are misusing to deny His existence. That is Evil, you bad, bad man."

I quaked in my pyjamas as it became increasingly clear that my factual arguments were going nowhere fast. I needed to sink to her level.

"What's your deal with the moon?" I asked, finding a soft spot to send low blows at, "Lunatic literally means 'Moon Person.' Guys have gone mad looking at the moon. Just saying."

"Meanie!"