Cowards

I may love the movie The Princess Bride but it is not my favorite. When it comes to romantic comedies, Robin Hood: Men in Tights is my favorite.

I googled the terms "cowardly" and "man" and this image was the first one. I giggled. I forgot how much of a coward the Prince was at the end of the movie.

I was looking for some inspiration to write about well, cowardly men.

I will get to it.

The Internet has changed everything. As a college senior in the early 90s I was one of few undergraduates with an email address. I needed it to conduct research. A few years laterI I was in grad school and all students on my campus had email addresses. We could dial into the university from our homes. We could tellnet each other. It was amazing and better than microwaved popcorn.

My first adventures on the Internet were in exploring search engines and finding innocent looking url that were really porn sites. It was fun. I learned the other meaning of the word GOLF back then. :) I joined several student based mailing lists and later young adult lists. When instant messengers replaced telnetting, I was able to keep in touch and to make virtual friends with people I had never met in real life. For my 30th birthday, I flew to Las Vegas to meet with people whose faces I had never seen before.

I never liked the early forums or boards. I had become addicted to mailing lists and instant messaging. Today, social networks are amazing.

When I first learned of blogs, I dismissed them. Today, my blog is almost 4 years old. I thought social networks were the annoying and too large to really be of significance.

Until I joined the ultimate social network and old friends began using it to reconnect for college and high school reunions.
It is amazing to explore how people have changed and where they have been since graduation day. I have been having loads of fun until I was dumped during a Facebook chat session.

My sister tells me to stop saying that. It is true. I was dumped over Facebook.
You want to know the story don't you?

I had been online trading dirty poems with some knitting friends. I didn't remember that FB was loaded. It was having a great time and drinking a rum and coke. I hear the telltale sound that someone has contacted me. It was the guy I had been dating. I share with him what I am doing online so late and he becomes cryptic. I manage to get himto he tell me what is going on and he admits that he has been seeing someone else.

I felt like a happy drunk that had just been placed into a really cold shower. I was a cold wet and still drunk but now I wasn't happy.

The next week it really hit me.

I had been dumped over the Internet.

What a cowardly thing to do. Later I got him to admit that he wasn't manly enough to just tell me. I had to force his hand. Over the Internet.

I referred to him as Asshat in my mind for about a week. A few weeks ago, I removed him from my friend's list when i learned that he was still paying attention to my page.

I can forgive just about anything...

Here is the deal, I am over 35 years old. He is over 40. When did our generation become so lame?

We are the ones born after the Baby Boomers and their little siblings the Jones Generation
who left college before windows 3.0. As Generation Xers we played hangman, Atari, Sega and minesweep for hours. We are overeducated, independent, and practical. I don't see the connection between sending IM to boyfriends in my mid 20s and being dumped through a social network's chat function at 37.

It is ludicrous. What happened to the manly men of the 90s who were appalled by the selfish attitudes of the 80s? Hell, we grew up on microwaved meals and the fear of AIDS. We can face anything. I still can't believe that he told me he can't face tears.

I threatened to send him a video of a woman crying. I actually looked for one on Youtube before I realized how stupid I was being.

I am not angry, I am just disappointed. Facebook chat? Really? and your over 40, college educated and employed????

I expected more.