No one should be fated to permanent bachelorhood in violation of his/ her informed choice. Alienation of females and males from inter-personal relationships is unnatural, as is the isolation of the divine from the human.
Loneliness is a state of disconnection that deepens the sense of alienation; it is associated with psycho-social ignorance, misinformation and misperception. Isolation is no responsible solution to common challenges in life. Coming to a mature sense of self is impaired by forced or self-elected alienation and disconnection from inter-personal responsibilities. Isolation in permanent aloneness is a kind of hell, the narcissistic echo chamber of self-contained communication.
So we ask ourselves, “Is bachelorhood a desirable permanent life condition/ choice?†Or is it perhaps a temporary, transformational occurrence in the growing-up time of life? Coming to maturity is coming to the realization that it is not good for man (or woman) to be alone. The time of bachelorhood, when we transition from youthful immaturity to adulthood, should be mature growth in the mutual processing of essential faith-and-reason consciousness, of intuitional replenishing in the experience of realities in common. Essential to the wholesomeness of interpersonal relationship is the obligation of mutual personal respect and the safe-guarding of individual authenticity, which happens in female/ male processing of faith and reason together.
At some point, every person needs to come to a sense of belonging to the human community, and owning a sense of self in inter-personal relationships. And what is it about communal relationship that is satisfying and fulfilling? It is the experience of enjoying the regard of others and showing regard for others. In a word, it is valuing service in the common experience of sociability, and having one’s own social needs met. No one is meant to be in a permanent condition of loneness, loneliness, i.e., fated to an unnaturally imposed state of permanent bachelorhood. The cultural alienation of bachelorhood (celibacy) isn’t a personal state of life to be permanently imposed, for personal, social needs change as one ages in experience, adulthood and wisdom.
The process of growing into adulthood is physically and psychologically challenging, especially in the complexities of modern experience. Social/ ecological distress from population pressures, for example, is a problem to be resolved not by isolation but by adult collaboration. Oh sure, at some time or other, we probably have all thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if we didn’t have to grow up?†But we do grow up. We do have to behave responsibly toward each other. And we need to get on with it together, not in isolation and the convenience of avoiding the whole mess, and leaving others to deal with it, but joining hand-in-hand to deal with cultural problems of conscience together.
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