But it's also somewhat alarming how so many years of training and evolution unravel so quickly.
I returned to London last Sunday morning, and immediately switched to Bachelor Phase 1. This involves peeing with the door open, leaving the toilet seat up and not making the bed. Bachelor Phase 2, which set in sometime on Monday, means that I'm leaving my socks on the stairs, my suit jacket on the newel post and my work shirts on the dining room floor. All of these may seem innocuous, and they probably are.
Bachelor Phase 3, however, is deeply disturbing, so it was while watching late-night TV on the couch in my underwear and eating a takeaway curry at midnight off an overturned laundry basket that I realized: it's a damn good thing that I'm married, or I'd be a total degenerate.
Yes, I relish the freedom to come and go as I please, without feeling guilty that I should be spending more time with Michele and the children. And yes, I also enjoy coming home to a quiet house when I'm tired of socializing and need some down time. But I wonder whether not having these things all the time is exactly what keeps me from falling off the edge.
I earn a fairly good living, so I've often fantasized about what it would be like to have all my income to spend on me. I'd travel, buy a boat, eat curry at midnight on a makeshift table. But the fact is, I don't particularly enjoy travelling alone, I get seasick rather easily, and eating on the couch in one's undergarments is, frankly, deeply pathetic. If I had all my income to myself, I'd probably be a nasty drunk with permanent curry stains on my fingers.
In fact, I can't help wondering whether having a family has led to my earning a decent income. If I only had me to worry about, would I work as hard? Would I be as motivated to progress my career? Or would I simply sit back and live moment to moment?
The question is completely academic, really. The facts are that I DO have a family and I DO work hard. Whether these facts are in any way connected is completely unknowable. The fact is also that this family is going to return to London soon, so I'd better vacuum up the rice I've spilled. Right after my nap.
