[TomOnTheRun]

Chastity at certain points in one’s life is understandable and often commendable. But indeed, lifelong chastity commitments made early in one’s life are quire hard (impossible in fact) for me and many others to understand.

What you say is very true and very understandable. I'm just not sure it should be as mysterious as it is to some people.

It's like this - When I'm at parties and people ask about what it was like to be a monk the FIRST question they ask is usually "How could you cope without sex?!" This is quickly followed by "It must be great to get some now!" They aren't ready for me to say "I not yet. No ring on my finger." - they are totally non-plussed and slowly stop talking to me. It's not that they they dislike me - it's that they think they have nothing in common with me. Chastity is apparently less easy to understand and more alienating than if I spent all my weekends at a gay bathhouse.

[netmilsmom]

I spent 34 years of my life without sex. I thought I was called to be a nun, but I was called to me a mom.

Even dating, sex was out of the question.

I would talk to you at those parties!

[GunRunner]

Chastity before you get married is understandable. Making a commitment when you’re 20 years old to live a life of chastity and never get married is something I can’t understand. Not only are you saying that you don’t want to get married currently, but that you never, ever will want to. That’s not something that anyone can be sure of at a young age if you ask me.

[arielguard]

You are right on the money TomOn. You should see the looks I get when I tell young men I work with to stop living with their girlfriends, or be a man about it and honor her with a committed marriage. They bounce from partner to partner, and I have to warn them the human heart was not meant to be broken again and again. It does terrible damage in the long run, but I’m swimming against the current, because the culture is shouting at them that sex is free, and has no repercussions. These things I speak of from my own experience too...sadly.