Blain/Blaine is a pretty crazy guy. Apparently the story goes something like this. Blain was Nathan's youth pastor. One day Nathan calls up Blain and says that something big is up and that he needs to talk. On the other end Blain says, "Can this wait a bit, I'm just doing my wife right now". I heard this from Patty so take it for what it's worth.
All and all, that's a pretty good picture of a few day impression of Blain. He says what he wants and is fairly rediculous but the guy loves God and there're multipul ways he proves it. He was the speaker for guys week and I'm disapointed that I didn't try to talk to him one on one.
Because Blain was the speaker for guys week most of the stuff he talked about is probably not fitting for me to reitterate verbatem in here. I'll tell you the PG stuff.
One cool piece of advice was that the most important thing that you can do as a newly married guy, is to make your wife your standard of beauty. Other than that we did the classic make a list of questions you want to ask the girls and they answered them and we answered theirs. Overal it wasn't helpful at all, at least not with understanding girls but it did leave me with a very large question. The questions is this:
Is it possible to have strong platonic intergender relationships?
I had never thought about it too much until this point but it was expressed, as if it were fact by the women leaders, that it is irrisponsible for a guy to try and go deeper with a girl unless he likes her, otherwise he is leader her on. I don't have the ability to go into depth here but my first reaction was actual anger which really surprised me because most things don't affect me that strongly. I have some strong opinions about the above question but before I get into them, what are yours?
2 comments:
I don't know the truth here...but my personal experience has been that it is nearly impossible to have that kind of strong relationship with a girl without the intention of taking it further.
I say nearly, because who knows, maybe it is possible. Yet the important thing for us guys is to be strong with each other (for Christ's sake) and then we will be able to get out there and love our sisters in Christ.
As I wrote this I also thought that maybe the reason this kind of platonic intergender relationship is next to impossible because that openness (that we have with our close close friends) with a woman should be reserved for marriage...
I'm not sure, but maybe it will make more sense as we continue to build new and deeper relationships...
I think it's definitely possible; in fact, I think it fairly natural in some cases. Perhaps this is because I have a sister, but I'm not sure. Also, I'm going on Wikipedia's definition of Platonic Love.
I think that in analysis, love can often be broken up into categories. It would thus be possible to have Platonic Love as well as Eros for another. They would exist as separate parts - not mixed - but applied together to form the entire bond. In that sense, it seems logical to be able to have one without the other. I don't know if I've had this sort of relationship entirely, but I have had very intimate relationships with very little emotional connection or desire.
I also believe that a platonic relationship is paramount in marriage as separate from the romantic one as romance is far too based on things that can change in the beloved, whereas the platonic is based on things that shouldn't. As to whether it should come before or after, I would say after as I don't believe that romantic interest can grow out of nothing (which is inherent in platonic love to begin with).
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