There are no red flags here - he is being direct and succinct when he tells you marriage is the end of life, and he has no interest in children now. You are with him now, and he doesn't wan to marry you or have children with you...but you say that you aren't really interested in those things now, either.

So, if you are enjoying his company, stay with him. And learn to have open conversations about marriage and kids. Be as direct wit him as he has been with you. Tell him, neither of us wants marriage or kids now, so things are good. But someday, I know that I will want marriage and kids. I'd like to hear your thoughts on why you don't want kids, or if you can ever envision having them, and under what circumstances. I'd like to just hear your honest thoughts so that when the time comes and I am ready, I am able to really listen to the men in my life, really hear what they are saying, and appreciate it, without wasting time and energy hoping someone will 'change' their dreams to match mine.

Then ask him what makes marriage seem like the end of life. Is it monogamy? Is it the marriages he's seen around him? Ask him if he's ever seen a good marriage, and what seemed to be working. Make it a practice to dissect marriages of friends around you. In other words, expose yourself as much as possible to his pov without judgement or without getting so ego-involved your vanity can't handle it. You could learn a lot from a man who lets his guard down and tells you why he feels as he does about these things.

I had to go back twice to make sure I really read that, that Catherine Price really wrote that. I did, she did - and it was HILARIOUS.

"he is publicly speaking the truth about her feelings instead of keeping silent in service to her mother's public relations precisely because she felt deeply abandoned and damaged by her mother"

Why does she need to publicly speak the truth about her feelings for her mother? Last I checked, Alice Walker is recognized and lauded for her work - not her her hatred of and distaste for her daughter, which, if these feelings exist, Alice has kept private.

Rebecca Walker is a jerk - writing an article that is a list of grievances against her famous mother just smacks of wounded vanity and envy. She can't stand that people think well of her mother's work - "I'll show them, I'll show them what she's REALLY like!" As if Alice walker not filing the fridge for her daughter will factor into what I think of Alice Walker's writing.

Rebecca Walker needs to grow up.

and here is the anecdotal evidence you need to counter this trend with a 'bare bones wedding' trend story:

- my first wedding had 200 guests and cost $3,000 total.

- my second wedding will have a price tag of exactly $2,000. not one penny more. we've decided that budget is reasonable and that is what we're working with.

The idea that sex should always provide some sort of illiicit thrill is a disservice Hollywood has done us in its movie pairings and that we perpetuate into our real relationships, causing all manner of problems.

Sex doesn't have to be illicit to be good. Sex is about pleasure, not about forbidden pleasure. In fact, forbidden pleasure is probably the least satisfying type of pleasure - it's rarely the sex that is fulfilling, instead it is the sense of secrecy that lends a feeling of being special, sought after and deeply desired that is the real attraction. Take away the illicit barriers to sex and it doesn't stay in the heady realms, it becomes....just regular sex.

We can find all kinds of sexual variety in one partner if we are willing to be the initiator instead of the person lying back waiting to receive the adoring ministrations of our partner. Sex can be bawdy and hilarious; it can be tender and sweet with lots of eye contact and face-touching; it can be experimental with role playing, talk, and changing positions or even locations. It can be quick and pressure-relieving, it can be long and slow and emotionally revealing. All of this with the same person.

Of course in our throw away society, it's easier when things feel boring to look for an answer that doesn't require us to make any changes ourselves, but instead find a new partner to validate that our same old boring self is really quite wonderful, see, the new partner proves it.

..so why are we saddling Hillary with these adjective? Because she's a woman, not "acting like a woman". I voted for Obama, but have no problem with the idea of Hillary as our Commander In Chief, and I for one am sick to death of Hillary being held to a different standard than men in vying for the presidency.

McCain and Edwards have had the 'audacity' to run longer and harder than Hillary for the presidency - where are the odes to their ambition and ruthlessness? Oh, that's right. There men. It's OK for them to reach high. Natural. Normal. Hillary, though - she really overstepped.

...but depraved, bloody and unrepentantly exploitive? that's just icing on the cake!