> I'm on this bandwagon with you guys, but i've also got concerns (blame it on perfectionism). What happens when i find someone else i want to pursue an intimate relationship with (i.e., marriage)? Intimate friendship is a rare and beautiful thing, but can't that set up some serious awkwardness between the friend and the "other"? Or difficulty balancing between the two?

Well, I did say that I was not interested in "dating", but I meant that in the way that the word is most commonly used in a contemporary context. However, this does include intimacy-- it is my belief that one can makes friends, court, and marry a member of the opposite sex without needing intimacy before marriage. I could go into more detail on that, but I am still feeling out the depths of the concept myself, and I am reading a book which is helping a great deal in that process. (No, the book did not lead to me to this line of thought-- I purchased the book BECAUSE I was thinking this way already.) Anyway, it will probably take some time for me to be able to answer you more fully, but for now I will say that I believe that the transition from "friends" to "married couple" can be made without too much awkwardness with a period of courting introduced between the two.

> > ~Den-"Old Yeller's the best doggone dog in the West"Kara
>
> Penny"i'll bet the Chinese would love to have some of your Western dog"stamp

Don "DOG!" Monkey