Sunday, September 27, 2009

A less than comic conundrum


In 'The Referendum', Tim Kreider, the articulate Times blogger, describes himself as “a respected cartoonist whose work is beloved by hundreds and has made [him] a thousandaire, who’s been in a committed relationship for 15 years with the same cat”. He’s intellectual, he’s handsome, he’s … single and loving it. What, then, you may ask is the problem? There is none, unless you count the great divide between the man and the society. While Mr. Kreider is perfectly content with his freedom from conformist ideals, as well as from diaper duty, the people in his life are less than convinced that he is telling the truth. Well, surprise! He is:


“I’ve never been married and don’t want kids. I recently had dinner with some old friends, a couple with two small children, and when I told them about my typical Saturday in New York City — doing the Times crossword, stopping off at a local flea market, maybe biking across the Brooklyn Bridge — they looked at me like I was describing my battles with the fierce and elusive Squid-Men among the moons of Neptune. The obscene wealth of free time at my command must’ve seemed unimaginably exotic to them, since their next thousand Saturdays are already booked.”

Mr. Kreider ends his essay with a beautiful allusion to Greek mythology. Bringing up the stories of Lot’s wife, Orpheus and Eurydice, he illustrates that looking back on life with regret is unwise. True, but I wonder what he would think about looking forward – would the self-assured 42-year-old man dare to imagine the possibility of a mind change? What would Mr. Kreider do if he met the woman whom he wouldn’t mind referring to as Mrs. Kreider and not think of either his mother or his cat? And, to create a hyperbole, what if Mrs. Kreider peed on a plastic stick one day only to discover a red plus sign which he’d agree to coddle and mold and support through college? Twenty years from now, would Mr. Kreider reread his essay with shame and chuckle? Or would he sigh and wistfully reminisce about his youth?


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