Dec. 23: Never get complacent with your partner

My daddy worked construction
My brother too
He got me in the union
I'm payin' my dues
Oh but the woman I love
Has expensive taste
She's never satisfied
The latest things
A diamond ring
A car with an ultra-glide
I work so hard
Payin' for all that stuff
Eight shifts a week
It's never enough
I'm layin' pipe all night long
Layin' pipe
I'm workin' so hard
I'm layin' pipe
All night long
Layin' pipe
To satisfy that woman

Those lyrics come from David Wilcox's 1987 song, Layin Pipe, which is about a man whose existence revolves around pleasing his ultra-materialistic partner, presumably his wife. Yes there's a double entendre with pipe - particularly the lines "I put the pipe in and I take it out again" - but the bulk of the song is that this dude's raison d'etre is trying to buy his lady's love.

Personally, I think he'd be a lot happier if he just kicked her to the curb.

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The Bible is hostile to divorce and the Lord Jesus said it's only permissible under extreme circumstances. The Bible is also pretty clear about being an ultra-selfish material girl, like the one in the David Wilcox song. Unfortunately, the sexual revolution has taught us to be impatient. We tend to dive right in these days. We need to do more vetting.

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Way back in 2000, when I first moved to Ontario, I got set up on a blind date with an ultra materialistic girl. I knew the date was going nowhere when I picked her up at her house and she first laid eyes on my car.

My car was a 1985 Pontiac 1000 with a Frankenstein grill and a dented mismatched rear passenger door. It looked like it had been assembled from pieces from a junkyard.

"Wow, I thought reporters made more money than that," she said as she reluctantly climbed into my car. We went for dinner and I stumbled my way through a conversation but it was clear that she was embarrassed to be seen with me. We skipped the movie. 

Later that night, I realized that I had dodged a bullet. Had I forged a partnership with that woman, she'd have demanded way too much of me. New cars, tropical vacations, clothes from Le Chateau. I'm glad she's nothing to me. I don't even remember her name. I can't even look her up on Facebook to see if she had Botox.

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 So in a way, that car was like a divining rod. It helped be differentiate between quality people and shallow people. If they were embarrassed to be seen in my car, I could write them off as superficial dumdums.

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The person who gave me this note title, Larry Carloni, is an automobile mechanic who has worked on the car I mention above. In fact, he oversaw a transmission replacement in said car and he gave me a good bargain to boot. A good friend, he is.

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The Pontiac 1000 looked like this:

I say sometimes that that car was my favourite car. I have owned six cars in my life. The Pontiac would not be well-loved by today's drivers, who have been spoiled by Apple Play and other electronic accoutrements. But I have a soft spot for that Pontiac because it was the car of my youth. It gave me a semblance of freedom and maybe, just maybe, it got me on the road to manhood.

There are some of us who might say you should never get complacent with your partner. If she insists that you change cars because she's embarrassed to be seen in it, then maybe you should run for the hills.