No doubt the reader is expecting some soft-core porn about mountain bikes of the "+ or plus" type, that is, ones that can use 3" tires. But actually, the lust I had in mind is more vile and swinish.
Camping in the desert doesn't seem like the likeliest place for an episode of earthly lust (unless you are a geologist.) And yet it happened twice on the same day. Odd things like that always make me want to explain them and blog about them.
It's not that the two experiences were unpleasant. In fact, it was almost a relief. But it was difficult comporting myself with dignity. When an old boy talks to a pleasant-looking woman thirty years younger than himself, it is hard to look into her eyes and not feel transparent, which then turns into a type of embarrassment.
She has a powerful effect on me, but I don't want her to know it. If she did, she might walk away, sniggering and mocking me with, "Well, I have made a new conquest...", such as the formerly blind girl did in Charlie Chaplin's classic "City Lights." That is what she said when she bumped into the Little Tramp on the street, without knowing that is was he who paid for her successful eye surgery.
Therefore, I try to be brief and pleasant. Hopefully she will go away thinking, "What a nice old gentleman..."
Although the younger woman is unintentionally embarrassing me, she is also benefiting me with intense and poignant nostalgia, and an optimistic experience of the circle of life. But what can I do for her?
Certainly it wouldn't flatter her that an old goat finds her attractive. Old age has simply given him "beer goggles" about younger women. But what if he can hint at a type of behavior that goes beyond the limitations of her own time? He has experienced both sides of Past and Present. She has only seen one side: the uni-sex, utilitarian, informal blandness of the modern age. So let him hint at old-fashioned formal politeness and courtliness. She might enjoy a little bit of it without really understanding it. It was a dimension of life once.
Meanwhile, I walk away from her with an extra spring in my gait, knowing full well what has happened and why.
Camping in the desert doesn't seem like the likeliest place for an episode of earthly lust (unless you are a geologist.) And yet it happened twice on the same day. Odd things like that always make me want to explain them and blog about them.
It's not that the two experiences were unpleasant. In fact, it was almost a relief. But it was difficult comporting myself with dignity. When an old boy talks to a pleasant-looking woman thirty years younger than himself, it is hard to look into her eyes and not feel transparent, which then turns into a type of embarrassment.
She has a powerful effect on me, but I don't want her to know it. If she did, she might walk away, sniggering and mocking me with, "Well, I have made a new conquest...", such as the formerly blind girl did in Charlie Chaplin's classic "City Lights." That is what she said when she bumped into the Little Tramp on the street, without knowing that is was he who paid for her successful eye surgery.
Therefore, I try to be brief and pleasant. Hopefully she will go away thinking, "What a nice old gentleman..."
Although the younger woman is unintentionally embarrassing me, she is also benefiting me with intense and poignant nostalgia, and an optimistic experience of the circle of life. But what can I do for her?
Certainly it wouldn't flatter her that an old goat finds her attractive. Old age has simply given him "beer goggles" about younger women. But what if he can hint at a type of behavior that goes beyond the limitations of her own time? He has experienced both sides of Past and Present. She has only seen one side: the uni-sex, utilitarian, informal blandness of the modern age. So let him hint at old-fashioned formal politeness and courtliness. She might enjoy a little bit of it without really understanding it. It was a dimension of life once.
Meanwhile, I walk away from her with an extra spring in my gait, knowing full well what has happened and why.
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| From imdb.com |
Comments
Where did this meeting occur? That always plays a big part in meetings of the opposite sex as well as between people with big age differences.