Saturday, January 15, 2011

There's Older and Then There's Dead

My mother and father were 18 years apart in age. They met first when she was 16 and he a sophisticated 34. Two years later they were engaged but then WW2 came and they both went into the service. He was already too old for the draft but he enlisted in the Air Force and she joined the Marines. They broke their engagement and went on to marry other people right after the war. Both of those marriages quickly failed, they married and stayed married for 18 years. To the ends of both their lives they said they were each other's real loves but couldn't live together. That happens more than Lifetime would tell you.

The point I'm taking a long time to get to, is that they were a generation apart but that wasn't an issue. This came up because I was reading about English comedian Polly Samson, who is married to David Gilmour the Pink Floyd guy, and they are 16 years apart. He's about to turn 65 and she, 49. When one gets to these ages the difference doesn't seem so great, and they've been married for 16 years, seemingly happy and their ages not an issue . Through my life I've known several couples who are a generation apart and it isn't a matter. Except for some reason when the woman is the elder, and then it's other people who raise an eyebrow. But that's a double standard for another post.

Then the annoying Mating Advocate in my head that I bind & gag with regularity brought up the idea that I should look for an older man. And somehow, when She raises a point I haven't considered, I think about it. Perhaps She's right. After all, I have much more in common with older men than with men of my own age. It can't be helped; I was raised by and have always been around older people, and my own interests and curiousities aren't fashionable to my own generation. In my many love affairs it's always been better with older men; straight men my own age often bore and annoy me. The advantages of younger men are limited, in my experience (I've had several and each one was worse than the last). I have no need to be teacher or mommy.

So just when I consider this to be a possibly good idea I realize something. If I were to go for a man 16-18 years older, he'd be near 70. I'm no spring chicken, but 70? SEVENTY?

The Mating Advocate is bound and gagged again. I think it's time I put her in a home where she'll be appropriately drugged and too busy making crafts to come up with stupid ideas.

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