The Case For Settling

My friend sent me this article “Marry Him!” today…  While the single life has been discussed in jest in this venerable forum for issue facing both single men and single women.  This article casts aside the jokes we all make about being on the mature side of single. Lori Gottleib says, “

Whether you acknowledge it or not, there’s good reason to worry. By the time 35th-birthday-brunch celebrations roll around for still-single women, serious, irreversible life issues masquerading as “jokes” creep into public conversation: Well, I don’t feel old, but my eggs sure do! or Maybe this year I’ll marry Todd. I’m not getting any younger! The birthday girl smiles a bit too widely as she delivers these lines, and everyone laughs a little too hard for a little too long, not because we find these sentiments funny, but because we’re awkwardly acknowledging how unfunny they are. At their core, they pose one of the most complicated, painful, and pervasive dilemmas many single women are forced to grapple with nowadays: Is it better to be alone, or to settle?

She goes on to say:

As I looked at him from across the table, I thought, Yeah, I’ll see him again. Maybe I can settle for that. But my very next thought was, Maybe I can settle for better. It’s like musical chairs—when do you take a seat, any seat, just so you’re not left standing alone?

Ms. Gottleib’s article’s thesis is trying to encourage younger single women to settle.  Why YOUNGER single women, you ask? 

Those of us who choose not to settle in hopes of finding a soul mate later are almost like teenagers who believe they’re invulnerable to dying in a drunk-driving accident. We lose sight of our mortality. We forget that we, too, will age and become less alluring. And even if some men do find us engaging, and they’re ready to have a family, they’ll likely decide to marry someone younger with whom they can have their own biological children. Which is all the more reason to settle before settling is no longer an option.

It is an interesting and depressing article written from a woman 10+ years my senior to women my age.  And while depressing and a seemingly repugnant thought, I can’t help but see the logic.  What do you all think?  Not just limited to the single IRF readers… I thought this would get some good discussion going.