Monday, October 03, 2005

money talks

A few years ago i was talking with one of my uncles at a family function, and had an epiphone -- men spend way too much time talking about money. I don't know this uncle very well, but rather than focus the conversation on my family, what i was learning in school, life's little absurdities, religion, politics, or whatever, it always seemed to be about money for him. It wasn't just that moment either. Every other year or so we end up chatting over the punch bowl, and it's always about money. This guy's not rich either, he's one of those guys that checks your gas meter to see how much to charge you this month. Nothing really extraordinary to talk about in the money department. I've come to realize that it's not just him either. Watch or participate in any conversation between men and it will inevitably include talk of money.

Not that i'm completely immune to this disease. I can keep the conversation going with my uncle just fine. Taxes, real estate, stocks, interest rates, blah blah blah. I do okay, better than most, and i have dabbled in lots of different areas so i have enough experience to talk the talk. I'm not sure it means the same to me though. Money is a necessity, sure, but i don't find it to be all that interesting or important. To me, to talk about money is just like talking about some weird news item - it's my own bemusement with the absurdity of life. For instance : i made $250 on stocks today... wtf?!? (ya, for real) Isn't that absurd? Numbers in a machine somewhere, and my gamble on some stupid thing actually paid off. In one day, with zero effort, i profitted more money than some people make in a week struggling at their crappy job. That's absurd.

With women it's different. They don't talk about money so much, if even at all. So when money issues come up and i talk about them with a woman (as above, amused by the absurdity), i often wonder if she takes it the right way. I don't want to come off as some asshole that is bragging about the kajillion dollars he's stuffing under his already fat matress. I guess i could try and be straightforward and explain my bemusement, but saying "i don't really care about money, but i'm doing pretty well..." sounds to me to be too close to "i'm totally straight, but..."

okay, i'll quit now, since mostly women read this and they'd probably already skimming by this point. To give you some direct context, i had a date yesterday which went really well. But when she didn't immediately respond to my hey-lets-do-it-again email, money was one of those things that i worried that i might have talked about too much. eventually she wrote back, but i still tend to overthink it.

,

1 Comments:

At 10/04/2005 11:48 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

those who take the time to get to know you... will know, you are not one of those $$ talkin kinda guys... unlike my DH. hah

 

Post a Comment

<< Home