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I am amazed to find someone with some of the same ideas about the current state of courtship/dating/'whatever.'

More remarkable is your hypothesis regarding women putting off marriage by dating non-marriageable types. For some time I have been telling people that perhaps the reason why girls had inexplicably stopped seeing me after a couple of months of deep conversations, tender affection and, I admit, sex, is that I am a man that is too deep and too genuine for the normal woman to want to stay around if she feels marriage isn't an option.

I've given up on trying to figure it out. Right now, I'm dating an 18 year old girl. Maybe that's young, but having gone through women my age and older that seemed unable to cope with the demands of a mature relationship, I figure she's got as good a shot as any. At least she hasn't been worn down by the world, is a believer in God and in committment. It's funny that I mention that believer part, because I'm an agnostic, but if the girl's faith can give her a strength that others lack, I'm beginning to be all for it. I cherish the slow pace of our relationship and the purity of it, as I appreciate all the little things more and find more comfort in an embrace than I might feel in intercourse.

Dating in the post-college world is even more despair-inducing than college. I've made my share of mistakes in relationships, but I think I'm learning. I just wish the women around me would learn without having to go through a husband, babies' daddies, 'bad boys', drunken escapades of self-degradation, etc before learning the same things.