Tried to talk to the guys about this NY Times Magazine about growing older, sex, etc.; this one writer is great. They gave me the "nobody is home look" but I persevered on.
The writer of the article was laying out Gail Sheehey who just wrote this book Sex and the Seasoned Woman. She did it in a subtle way, was very funny. The idea is that those like Sheehey are supposedly watching trends and they kind of put everybody in the same box--it is the concept of the eternal optimist as opposed to reality which most people aren't willing to face. Some things are just what they are, plain and simple: we age, we have wrinkles, adinfinitum. Good article and I love this statement, "here (Gail Sheehey)'s particular skill, in keeping with the desires of a culture frantically dedicated to the pursuit of silver linings--ever on the lookout for evidence that life is not hard, death is not final and it is never too late to make another better choice."
Good article with an overall theme of being who we are and not sweating the other stuff. Will have to say that most of the girlfriends are doing pretty well in terms of facing life. I also thought this was interesting: in an AARP survey, 80% of women said that there's too much emphasis on sex and is not all that essential for a good quality of life and even to a good relationship: 18% of the women surveyed said they would be quite happy never having sex again. OK!
The only thing I'd add is that all of this is a bit like so many things we read; writers, shrinks, whoever attempting to put all into the same bag. With my "girlfriends" I can tell you that with all BS aside, those guys, single guys: Michael, Gary, Larry, Dave, Saul, and Lee all have girlfriends close to their own age and are quality. They go against the trend that I read about in these stories of late about baby boomer men and women: men wanting younger women and older women having to take what's left. At least with the "girlfriends" doesn't seem to be the case. Oh well...
