Mel Yep! It does. I've studied people long before I even knew I was studying folks. I realized I could hear them before they even knew they were telling me who they were. So I can say a few well-placed words, questions, or statements they probably never expected, and all of a sudden, the real person appears. I love those "there you are" moments. Looks like you've been in the wrong profession....lol. Instead of sitting at a desk with your hair bald up in a knot anchoring the news or pushing carts of cold beer and soda pop up and down those tight airplane aisles, you should have been a PIMP (or a Madam); because that's what pimps....successful ones...are able to do. I have an Uncle who was a pimp and he told me he had been able to do the same thing since a child. Not only was he able to read people's thoughts and read their auras and colors but like you said he learned how to find about a person's entire history just by asking them a few strategic questions. Psychology calls it deductive reasoning where learning one fact about a person will certainly reveal other facts about them just as surely as knowing one is an athlete will reveal to you that they don't smoke, watch what they eat, and exercise on a regular basis. But he was able to do it on a much higher and more sophisticated level. I've seen him in action. He used to be able to point to people and tell me what they were all about and what they were into and then I'd go up and ask them and he was ON THE MONEY. He could do this with White people as easily as he could with Black people. It's a skill and gift that some would argue that he used negatively to exploit people, but it's certainly a skill, talent, and gift. Once I was divorced, I realized I didn't need marriage to make my life complete. After learning the structure, I'm sure these Gen X men realize that marriage was not the goal, but rather a step toward understanding themselves. Most of us Gen X Black men realize that marriage...like most other institutions in this society....are just SCRIPTS written for a play or movie that we weren't intended to star in or be the main characters in anyway, so we chose not to follow them. The wedding ceremony itself...which has always been expensive and lavish...wasn't designed for poor or working class people. It was obviously designed for wealthy people and a way to merge the wealth of families and keep it in a tight circle. On top of that, marriage as it was structured in the West was designed for the man to work while the women stayed at home and kept the children and house. Today women have to work....which means they will inevitably meet OTHER MEN and most likely will either leave their husband for them or just stay and have sex with other men they've met at work on the down low. Most of us past a certain age have seen this and realize the sham of it and decided it's not worth it. That's what I learned and am remembering on my journey. I had to go all the way back to who I was before the world told me what I should value to understand my value in the world and what I value. Well, just don't go TOO far back...lol...you'll end up back in Brooklyn. Watching two rats fighting over a piece of Jamaican Jerked chicken. ProfD IMO, as a society, we need to do a better job of telling the truth about marriage. Marriage is a business arrangement, er, a contract between a man & woman to share their lives. 🤣 Exactly. But this must be CLEARLY understood by BOTH PARTIES upon entering the agreement. They can't be entering into a business contract assuming that it's all about LOVE and that they will remain faithful to eachother forever. As a man you MUST realize and even expect that if you can't take care of your family alone and your wife has to work....expect that she will meet other men and may even end up having sex with them! Prepare yourself for this FACT. Those poor and working class men who DON'T realize and accept this are the ones filling up the local headlines with so many murder-suicides.