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I do not need him to protect me physically, because I live in one of the safest societies on Earth.

I do not need him to provide for me financially, because I have always been the winner of my own bread.

I do not need him to extend my circle of kinship, because I have a rich community of friends and neighbors and family all on my own.

I do not need him to give me the critical social status of ‘married woman,’ because my culture offers respect to married women.

I do not need him to father my children, because I have chosen to not become a mother-and even if I did want children, technology and the permissiveness of a liberal society would allow me to secure babies through other means, and raise them alone.

So where does this leave us? Why do I need this man at all? I need him only because I happen to adore him, because his company brings me gladness and comfort, and because, as a friends grandfather once put it, ‘Sometimes life is too hard to be alone, and sometimes life is too good to be alone.’”

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