tallslenderguy(other male)
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4 years ago •
Aug 3, 2020
4 years ago •
Aug 3, 2020
i've had a sub nature that i can trace back to kindergarten. Gay, bottom with sub. Grew up and was conditioned by a particular religious culture that equated being gay with being "broken" and "sinful," so i spent a big part of my life trying to be someone i was not. i lived the 'traditional' married to a woman, breadwinner role. It was daily torture (not the good kind, for all you S/m's) and nearly destroyed me. Instead, turned poison into medicine and today i'm free, self accepting and at peace.
my former (and still religious) wife took everything (close to a 1m estate). It's ironic, because she and my kids feared and accused me of wanting to get a gay boyfriend and kick her to the curb, leaving her penniless and destitute. The reverse happened. After 31 years of marriage and being the sole support for this person, the system decided i owed her a living, so it was either give her everything or pay alimony for life. i'm not writing this for sympathy or to whine, i've moved on (though i confess this has left a scar), and rebuilt a life from scratch.
i've really wrestled with understanding this, how both she and my sons religious moral 'ethic' could see the wrong and implicate me because of fear that i'd take everything (i wouldn't have, to me 50/50 seemed the way to end things), then turn around and do exactly that. To add to the irony (for me) she currently does 'missionary work,' which translated means she spends most of her time in Israel doing what she loves. i'm non religious now, so it's almost comical (dark comedy) that she is doing her thing 'for God' funded largely from a lifetime of my labor, and it's a wonder to me that she doesn't connect those dots. She is not stupid, she's actually very intelligent (and perhaps weirdly to some, i still love this person). i'm fairly certain she does not see herself or her action as nefarious.
my guess is, she has just buried any reasoning and did all of this out of fear. She was accustomed to being taken care of, even to the point of entitlement, and was petrified of the notion of having to provide for her self (or trust her "God" to provide) . Don't get me wrong, she was never lazy, she cared for our kids, we home schooled both. We flipped houses, she did about 1/4 of the work, i did the rest while, also working as VP for company. When the kids left home at 17, i suggested she might want to go to school or start a business or get a job (i.e., contribute more), she declined and though it was a point of contention, she got her way. Personally, i have come to view a lot of her attitude a result of religious patriarchal conditioning.
There was a time in our relationship where i enjoyed being the provider, but that eroded over time as i realized my provision was no longer seen as a gift, but an expected entitlement. i went from feeling good as a giver, to feeling used- an income resource.
All of this has taught me, and burned something into me very deeply. i'm sub, but if a rich Dom came into my life tomorrow and wanted me to quit my job and live off His dime, i don't think i could do it. i get part of my sense of value by being independent first, freely being able to bring my self to the table of relationship, and being able to support myself is part of that.
Of course, i know that's me. i know there are people out there who want an arrangement where one supports the other (i've seen it reversed too, i.e., where Dom's use subs to provide income for them). If that fulfills a need, then i guess those people are getting a return. i don't equate or in any way associate my sub nature with needing someone to support me financially. i know from experience it's not for me, for me it was a destructive process that almost destroyed me. And, it's left me a little gun shy, probably overly cautious when someone approaches me showing interest: do they really want me, or just want 'someone' to support them?
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