Hooking Up vs. Holding Out:
Helping Singles Find a Healthy Sexual Balance
(Part 1 of 7)

 

(This article originally appeared in Enrichment Journal, 03/2011)

I’ll never forget the day one of my best childhood friends got a new swing set for her birthday. Why? Because the scar on my forehead won’t let me forget.

The contraption had your typical swings, a slide, and a U-shaped bar for twirling around, but it also had something cool I’d never seen on a swing set before. It was the shape of a cage and had two benches facing each other, allowing two people to “pendulum swing” at the same time. Two of the birthday party attendees climbed onto the benches, and I offered to push them, hoping I could have the next turn inside the cage. As I pushed, the girls squealed, “Higher!” so I decided to push the way I often pushed someone on a typical one-person swing–putting my hands on their back and plowing forward until I ran all the way under the swing to the other side. I braced myself to give it the old heave-ho, then pushed as high up in the air as I possibly could.

At that moment I realized the weight of the second person prevented me from pushing the swing high enough to have complete clearance, but my body movements were already committed to the task. Rather than running all the way underneath and through to the other side, I was caught up in the backlash of the pendulum swing when the foot rest caught my forehead and dragged me down to the ground, flat on my back.[1]

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