You know honestly, I believe the answer to the question is really complicated, and depending on where you are--socially, financially, professionally, emotionally' and physically--the answer will be different. I will even go further and state that depending on your age, early 30s through late forties, would cause each of us to approach the question differently.

I do believe that something we can all agree on is that when we get older is easier to say what we don't want in a relationship, based on all our prior experiences, than what we are truly looking for. If you think about it we easily identify with the traits we no longer want to deal with and by default we seem to say that if our partner is not that way then he/she is, or may be, the ideal person; if only it was that easy...

Personally I do not have any problems dating. My problem stems from the fact that as I meet someone and we begin a relationship my partners always want to pressure me into committing early in the relationship and that unfortunately brings about a demise of the relationship.

At this point in my life I can say with certainty that I don't want to grow old all alone but given my prior experience with marriage and how the pain, financial distress, and the entire negative episode, I could honestly say that given a choice between experiencing that again and being alone I will choose the later in a heartbeat.

Those are my thoughts on the topic.