Back from one trip and on to the next one

I came back from my business trip, and on Saturday, I get to do an overnight backpacking trip with my son for the Boy Scouts. It will be my son's first backpacking trip, and we are going up Mt. Lemmon to the Romero Pools, a few thousand feet up from the bottom of the mountain. It should be chilly. I have never actually spent the night outside when the weather was cold, so I anticipate suffering. I'll be back Sunday afternoon, so hopefully I can drop a few ARB posts in at that point when we are discussing the chore distribution in the now-combined Patterson household.

As for today's For Better or For Worse, Gary Crane practically points to Warren and says, "Love Him", which seems very odd. However, I have a plan to tie Warren and Gary's bizarre antics together, which I think will actually make sense in the context of the strip.

The Paul cheating sequence has been very confusing for me, and I have struggled to figure out what Lynn Johnston intended. I think this is what it is:

After Liz left Paul, he began cheating on Liz with Susan Dokis. For Susan Dokis, she was fully aware Paul was with Liz. I suspect she was playing the "Don't you wish your girlfriend was Ojibway like me?" with Paul. Paul was undecided and conflicted, because Liz does not share his culture and expects him to follow her blindly. In other words, Susan was like the mistress to married Paul, who understood Paul's need for secrecy to preserve his relationship with Liz. I know this part doesn't make complete sense, since Paul and Liz were not married, and all Paul really needed to do was call Liz up and call things off, but it's the only way I can get the next part to work.

Paul doesn't go to support Liz during the trial, because he is too busy with Susan. When the Spruce Narrows transfer goes through, Paul chooses to accept the transfer, and this is essentially his accepting Susan over Liz in the eyes of Gary and Vivian Crane. However, when Liz was coming to visit Mtigwaki, Paul's plan was to pretend he was not with Susan, even though he said that was not true. But Liz comes a day early and thanks to Gary's hints, finds Paul with Susan and realizes he has been cheating on her.

Paul is guilty, not so much because he cheated on Liz with Susan, but because he continued to pretend he was with Liz after he had started up with Susan. Susan is guilty because she cheated with Paul, even though she knew he was with Liz. The whole of Mtigwaki is guilty because they knew about the cheating and didn't tell Liz. However, Liz has apparently forgiven Mtigwaki, just not Susan and Paul.