SINGLENESS

Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.

—I Tim. 4:3

5732 U.S. Singles Statistics

Americans living alone or with unmarried roommates now make up 1 out of 3 households in the U.S. The “singles” lifestyle is a new trend that is affecting every aspect of society. Unwed couples living together and divorcees are in this group.

In San Francisco, one-half of the residents above age 17 are single. Nearly 3/4 of the people of Carl Sandburgh Village, a suburb of Chicago, are unmarried.

5733 “N.O.N.” Organization

“None is fun.” That is the slogan of the National Organization for Non-Parents (NON), an association formed to promote “child-free” marriages and make non-parenthood “not just a word but an option.” All of the members, even the parents among them, are committed to childlessness.

To help establish childlessness as an institution, NON has decreed two new holidays, Non-Mother’s Day and Non-Father’s Day. On these days, favorite non-parents are to be honored with flowers and cigars. The organization has begun to publish a rather juvenile newsletter, NonSense, which, for example, charged that an issue of Pageant “exceeded the bounds of all decency in extolling the virtues of motherhood.”

NON does not advocate that everyone be childless. It recommends a maximum of one child for couples who really want youngsters, and no babies at all before age 21.

5734 Church For Singles

The first Singles Church, founded by Princeton Seminary graduate Richard Chen and seventeen others in Orange County, California, has a congregation of divorced, widowed, and not-yet-marrieds numbering in the hundreds. Chen (who is divorced and has four children to care for) and his flock meet in rented quarters for worship and Bible study.

5735 When Is She A Spinster?

At what age is a single woman considered a spinster?

A woman who has passed her thirty-first birthday may be considered a spinster in our country, since the chances are against her eventual marriage after that age. As a matter of fact, most women in the United States who marry do so relatively young. In consequence, less than one-tenth of our women have not been married by their thirty-second birthdays.

5736 When Is He A Bachelor?

At what age is a single man considered a bachelor?

Although there is no definite age which determines when a single man becomes a confirmed bachelor, for practical purposes it may be set at about 35 years. Beginning with age 18, young men marry in increasing numbers, the marriage rate rising rapidly with each year. By age 30 about one-eighth. While men continue to marry in later life, fewer than half of the single men who have passed age 35 eventually do so. For this reason, single men who have passed their thirty-fifth birthdays may be considered as confirmed bachelors.

5737 Childless Authors Write For Children

A sound Ph.D. dissertation could be written on the curious phenomenon of children’s literature written by childless authors. From Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll to Dr. Seuss and Maurice Sendak, the phenomenon persists. The incidence is too high to be coincidental. Perhaps the writers substitute audience for family. Perhaps, like Beatrix Potter, they seem more comfortable in the domain of childhood, where fantasy is the norm and reality the intruder.

Born into the stifling world of Victoriana, little Beatrix lived in a universe of iron structure. There were bars on her bedroom windows; a grim governess ordered her life. She was denied dolls—but she was allowed to have a pet rabbit. It was that little rodent that formed the foundation for her career. Little Beatrix observed him well and immortalized him as Peter Rabbit. Her fresh pastel drawings and brief, energetic tales—of birds, foxes, fish and mice—caught the fancy of children throughout the Western world. By her death in 1943, Beatrix Potter was second to only one lady author of children’s literature: Mother Goose.

—Time

5738 A Man Never Saw A Woman

Probably the only man in history who never saw a woman was Mihailo Tolotos, a monk who died in 1938 at the age of 82 in one of the monasteries atop Mount Athos, Greece. As his mother passed away when he was born, Mihailo was taken to Athos the next day and never once, throughout his life, left this monastic colony which has excluded all females, animals as well as humans, for more than 900 years.

—Selected

5739 Famous Bachelors

Among famous bachelors was Horace Walpole, who satirized women for more than half-a-century (although it is said he fell in love during his later years but could not find courage to ask the burning question). Beethoven was also a bachelor, while Hans Anderson, Voltaire, Macaular and Michelangelo had their own reasons for remaining single.

There were others, too, who would have married, but circumstances would not allow them. Charles Lamb never married because of an ailing sister, while Pope was too much devoted to his mother.

Obesity was the reason why Gibbon remained a bachelor; so fat was he that on one occasion when he fell down on his knees to propose, he could not rise and had to be helped up by two attendants.

5740 Will Says “No Make-Up”

Leyland, England (AP)—Amelia Whaite, a Lancashire woman who stands to inherit more than 400,000 dollars if she avoids men and make-up for five years, says she’s having no trouble obeying the strict rules imposed by her dead boss. “It hasn’t made any difference to my way of life,” she said.

Miss Whaite, 47, learned of her good fortune when the will of wealthy dentist Philip Grundy was published. Grundy left 436,400 dollars to Miss Whaite, who had worked for him as a nurse- receptionist for more than 30 years.

But certain inflexible conditions were specified by the dentist, a bachelor who died at the age of 69.

His will insisted that Amelia must “never use any lipstick or make-up of any kind whatsoever—apart from clear nail polish—and wear no jewelry such as rings, earrings or necklaces, and never go out with any man on her own, or with a party of men, during the next five years.”

5741 Japan’s Nurses Complain

Tokyo (UPI)—More than 80 percent of Japan’s registered nurses and nurse trainees are not married, and blame it on the fact they have to work at night, the Japan Nursing Association said.

The association published the results of a survey of its 142,863 members, and said the current shortage of trained nurses in Japan dooms women who stay in the profession to overwork.

“The nursing shortage not only makes the nurse’s life wretched,” said Miss Kobayashi, president of the association, “but it also downgrades the overall level of medicine in Japan, inescapably causing serious cases of medical blundering.”

5742 Hanging Preferred Over Marriage

Jean Poqueron of Hautvilliers, France, sentenced to death as a habitual thief, was told that he would be released if a pure maiden was willing to marry him. A homely, orphan girl stepped forward willingly.

But Poqueron took one look at her, shook his head and said: “No! I’d rather marry the gallows—Hangman, do your duty.” He was hanged forthwith, in the city of Reims, in 1234.

—Selected

5743 Aunt Emma’s Prayers

A little girl was caught listening at the keyhole while her spinster aunt was saying her prayers. Her mother told her it was wrong to eavesdrop.

“But, Mommy,” the child said, “Aunt Emma ended her prayer so funny.”

“What did she say?” asked mother.

“Well, when she finished praying she said, “World without men, ah me.””

—Speaker’s Sourcebook

5744 Not “Missing” Men

A brief clause in the will of Harriet Hartbyrne, who died a spinster at age 87: “I don’t want anybody to put “Miss” on my tombstone—I haven’t missed as much as some people may think!”

—The Carpenter

5745 Look And No Leap

Says Mr. Justice McCardie of the British High Court (himself a bachelor), “A bachelor is a man who looks before he leaps—and, having looked he does not leap.”

See also: Marriages ; Luke 23:29.