Real Life
Where are the cowboys and the lumberjacks and the grease-monkeys and the firemen?
I grew up with nerds, sure.. gamers and stuff. But I did get the privilege of also growing up with a boy who was still interested in discovery. He liked to play with electricity and play catch and ride bikes through the mud and build giant snow igloos.. stuff that took some sweat and originality. We worked several times on making a giant tree in his back orchard into a full-fledged tree house. It was never conformed to our elaborate vision but definitely passable for 10 year olds.
He knew how to knock down bees nests and find frog eggs in the pond and fish for blue gill. We painted tractors and tilled the vegetable gardens and pulled strawberries. Point is, we played outside. There was none of this going over to each others houses and playing video games or watching Nickelodeon. If we were going to watch something, we would watch for hawks or deer or hike over to the neighbors and lean on the fence, feeding the horses. We would try to catch the animals hiding in the barn or chase turkeys in the coop. If we stood around too long his mom would put us to work filling up those green pints with jewel raspberries, only a fraction of which didn't make it into our mouths instead.
So now in my later years, on those occasional days I'm looking for someone to be both male as well as more significant than the average male (to me), I'm not looking for people who spend their days interacting with artificial life. I'm looking for someone who desires to interact with real life.
/end rant
I grew up with nerds, sure.. gamers and stuff. But I did get the privilege of also growing up with a boy who was still interested in discovery. He liked to play with electricity and play catch and ride bikes through the mud and build giant snow igloos.. stuff that took some sweat and originality. We worked several times on making a giant tree in his back orchard into a full-fledged tree house. It was never conformed to our elaborate vision but definitely passable for 10 year olds.
He knew how to knock down bees nests and find frog eggs in the pond and fish for blue gill. We painted tractors and tilled the vegetable gardens and pulled strawberries. Point is, we played outside. There was none of this going over to each others houses and playing video games or watching Nickelodeon. If we were going to watch something, we would watch for hawks or deer or hike over to the neighbors and lean on the fence, feeding the horses. We would try to catch the animals hiding in the barn or chase turkeys in the coop. If we stood around too long his mom would put us to work filling up those green pints with jewel raspberries, only a fraction of which didn't make it into our mouths instead.
So now in my later years, on those occasional days I'm looking for someone to be both male as well as more significant than the average male (to me), I'm not looking for people who spend their days interacting with artificial life. I'm looking for someone who desires to interact with real life.
/end rant