[larrydallas]

This is sort of far fetched and out there but I have been giving it thought the past week and it seems to make sense considering PO.

We have this cleaning lady at work who does not speak very good English because she is a recent immigrant to the US. A co-worker of mine sometimes translates for her so I nkow what little I do about her based on a third person's help. Anyway her (the cleaning lady's) daughter is like my age and came up from Mexico to visit her mom and my boss hired the daughter to work with the mom for a while.

There is something very honest and open about the both of them. Through the mom and via the translater I've come to find out that the daughter has kind of taken a liking to me. She does not speak English so she has not spoken with me at all but you can kid of tell when someone takes a liking to you; know what I mean.

At first I was thinking I would just be nice to her while she was here and then she would go on her way and that was that. I've come to learn that their family is into farming in Mexico and have their own land and grow their own food. When the spring season hits and all of the planting work is done the men in the family apparently stay behind to tend the crops while the women find odd jobs to pass the season and create income until the crops go to market in mid to late summer.

In other words if PO hits hard and they get in a bind they will be much better off than a vast majority of the people on Earth. I thought about pretty much everyone I know and the women my age in this city. Most are industrial cripples who freak out when the power goes out for 30 minutes during a rainstorm.

So what is to value these days now? An education and book intelligence or a basic school education and knowledge as to how to survive in the real world which is not powered by petrolium and natural gas?

They don't have a telephone in Mexico since they live in a small village. I'm thinking I should get directions to their house and promise I will visit them sometime in the future.

It kind of makes you feel like slime for using someone as a safety net like that or just having the thought to do it. I dunno....I suppose I could take her to the movies or to lunch a few times and build some sort of friednship at minimum. My Spanish is really bad and I probably sound like a total idiot when I speak it. But you never know.....life is short and maybe even shorter factoring in PO so I figure why not.

Question here is do your relationships get based or destroyed at some level based on PO?

Like right now I'd say demand for interior decorator is really low based on PO criterion.

[Phil]

I think the ability of a potential suitor to accept and understand peak oil is vitally important. In that respect, peak oil does influence within whom I would consider depositing sperm (and sticking around .)

I wouldn't want to live in Mexico personally. A few visits was enough.

[0mar]

it should

[MattSavinar]

Consider the following:

There is an example Jared Diamond uses somewhere in his Collapse book where he said he suspected the female members of a certain collapsing tribe simply took their stuff and went to join the tribe that had better survival skills.

The book is huge, so I can't remember where I got the example from.

Matt

[killJOY]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')his is sort of far fetched and out there

[Phil]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('killJOY', 'N')o sweat. You're at the site where anything and everything goes--except for hate speech, of course.

[killJOY]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') often find that peoples' definition of "hate speech" is simply any utterance of truth that defies current politically-correct dogma.

[uNkNowN ElEmEnt]

I think its had a real effect on who I date. In fact, I don't date anymore. too picky. Up here if you don't screw a guy by the third date its over. I think I will wait until I find someone who isn't so superficial.

However, it also means I won't put up with the usual crap. If the guy can't pick a goal and stick with it, bye-bye. If he can't think to put an entertainment centre together, good bye.

It also might mean that I have a good excuse to pick guys who are smart instead of good looking. smarts are sexier anyway.

[pilferage]

No, but stupidity does.

[bobaloo]

From a slightly different perspective, I've found it does affect my take on the guys my daughters date. My youngest has been with a guy for close to a year who by most father's opinions is a nightmare. He's worked odd jobs for the last 10 years (he's 25, she's 18 but a scary 18), probably never had a job more than a month or two. Been in and out of college off and on for years, seldom has more than 20 bucks to his name.

On the other hand he grew up in a cave in New Mexico, the kid of dysfunctional hippies, learned how to feed himself and take care of himself at a very early age and has been supporting himself since then. Knows how to hunt and butcher, garden, and live with very little and be happy. Owns an M1A and a Colt 1911 and knows how to use them. Paints a good landscape, plays the guitar and concertina, and isn't the least afraid of hard work.

Given what I think the future is going to be like, I think she's caught a pretty good one.

[k_semler]

I'm not married, and I don't date. I have been single all of my life, so why change now? Nobody would be interested in me anyhow.

[pea-jay]

Mexico is interesting. I have family there. None live in rural areas. This woman--how far is this farming community located from urban or touristed areas? That can make a difference. If one is located 30 minutes from Mexico City or Guadalajara, no amount of ecological living will prevent your location from being overrun.

On the other hand if your hours from a city, the area receives decent rainfall and the community a stable one (not experiencing population growth) it might not be a bad place to wind up.

[larrydallas]

You see the language problem is big for me in communication with her. I can take a map of Mexico to work and ask "Donde esta vive su familia?".

She'd point to somewhere on the map but given the egocentric education I have where we know little about foreign countries I would only be able to judge how far it is from say Mexico City which has over 20 million people.

That reply someone posted about that 25 year old guy is exactly what I am talking about with her. She is not a cripple to the modern industrial lifestyle from what I can tell. Also, we have kind of come to think of femininity as being the walk, talk, and how someone dresses. It's considered feminine if a woman speaks softy and wears pastel colors...stuff like that.

In my line of work I have been to many peoples' homes of many ethnicities and found that as 2nd and 3rd generation immigrant's children start to marry and build homes they kind of move more towards the industrial and post sexual revolution trend of equal division of labor and types of labor.

Not so in new immigrants and those from Latin or Asian nations especially. The male is expected to make the money and break his back to do whatever it takes for the family. The woman is expected to handle all else and care for the home and children. That may sound "backward" and "primative" to a lot of people who have heard nothing but the one side of it from angry women who were in perhaps abusive situations where the men treated them poorly and did not appreciate their contribution to the family but I kind of see this arrangement as being a good thing.

That sort of divsion of things to do does not equal the guy being a macho A-hole and bossing the woman around or the woman having to feel all depressed about how she "wasted her life". I kind of come to think of it as empowerment on the parts of both sexes. Both specialize in their areas and with that they share the fruits of their labor and both enjoy dual benefits.

Tell that to most industrialized nation women and they will just refuse to even think about this point of view. I guess that is why I have thought about this woman this week and considered all of this big picture stuff.

Besides, if PO hits hard we will both be in a field somwhere growing crops. I won't know jack squat about how to farm but at least she and her family can teach me as we go. If at the same time i was with a woman that grew up industrial we'd both be going to the local grocery store and wondering when the next truck load of food would arrive.