No, Really, I Don't Want to Remarry

It happened again yesterday. This time, it was the woman cutting my hair.

Her: Are you married?
Me: Divorced.
Her: Oh, well that's ok. You're young. You'll get married again.
Me: No, I don't think I will.
Her: What?! You're so cute though. Of course you will.
Me: No, I don't mean I couldn't get married again. I just don't want to.
Her: Well, you just feel that way now. You'll get married again.
Me: *sigh* OK.

For the love of Pete, lady! You're cutting my hair, and you only even do that about once a year. It's not like you know a damn thing about me! People - strangers - keep insisting that I must get married again and giving me these pitying looks when I tell them I'm not planning to do that. Even if I still happen to be "cute" enough that I could land another man.

I was with my ex for 20 years. For about 19 of those years, I was really happy. I would have been happy to stay married to him. It's not like I don't know what I'm missing.  I don't hate men; I like men. I've thought about it. I've considered my feelings and my priorities. I've looked at the quality of my life. And I've decided that the whole dating/romance/marriage thing is not something I want to do again. I've done that and now I want to do something else. I suppose I may change my mind at some point, but it won't be because I've finally emerged from my choking cloud of denial, or whatever these people seem to think I'm living in.

I'm happy. My life is good. I'm not alone and I'm not lonely. The only thing I've really given up is sex. I've had a lot of sex with a lot of people over the course of my life and, honestly, I don't have a problem with that. It's nice and all, but it's worth a lot less to me than what I've gained by just taking a pass on the whole business.

So, it would be good if people could stop treating me like not being interesting in remarrying is some sort of terminal illness, ok? As it turns out, while there are indeed other fish in the sea, there are also other seas.