It seems AT&T has deemed it necessary to turn off our phone signal a bit prematurely and thus my DSL is also down (at least until Saturday when it gets turned on at the new pad) so I find myself accessing the Internet at the local library.
Enough about that though...
I recently finished reading J. Maarten Troost's Getting Stoned With Savages which made me re-evaluate that gnawing wanderlust to chuck it all and relocate to some remote South Pacific island (come on, haven't we ALL had that fantasy at some point or another, the Chicago winters are excellent fuel for that fantasy!).
It also got me to thinking about the whole wanderlust thing and comparing it to sex appeal and why some people cheat-- it's that whole "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" mentality. Or as John Cusack so ineloquently put it, it's about the fancy underwear... When you're with someone new they're dressed to impress, generally the lasses wear their best panties, that doesn't mean they don't have the god-awful granny panties, those come later after a certain level of comfort is reached. But that whole desire for somewhere else or someone else comes from the fantasy of the newness, of the "fancy panties" if you will. But we get so caught up in that fantasy that we often forget, in that same dark drawer where the fancy panties came from also lie the granny panties and eventually she's going to wear those granny panties when she's with you.
I think for many of us straight lads, that's when the "commitment switch" kicks in... when we realize that for all those pretty girls we aren't with... as pretty as they may be on the surface, they come with a whole set of baggage that we don't know about just from givin' them a fair glance, whereas the lasses at home already know our favorite foods, our pet peeves, all the shit you'd have to teach the new lass were you to get to know her... and who knows, her dirty laundry may be even dirtier than the laundry your current lass has that you already know about and have come to accept. We get to that point and realize that no matter what else is out there, no matter how nice it might look on the surface, it can't compare to the person we already have or the place where we already live.
And to think I got all that from reading a travel memoir of a guy who spent some time in Vanuatu and Fiji... The mind works in mysterious ways.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
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12 comments:
Hey, I just watched "High Fidelity" the other day. Very good point about the grass being greener. That reminds me of another movie I saw recently called "Lantana" have you seen it?
You're lucky to have a woman you love that loves you. That to me is green grass.
I just finished Troost's 'The Sex Lives Of Cannibals'!
It encouraged my wanderlust.
Is GSWS good? I'm planning on picking it up in the near future.
And that's a great comparison between the sexual wanderlust and the geographical. Makes total sense.
Geez - whay does that say about me - I've moved 7 times in the last 12 years...
Dan, sexually or geographically?
Dickeybird: I remember having a conversation with a high school friend once when we were discussing how a former classmate had come out of the closet:
"Did you hear, *name withheld* changed his sexual orientation?"
"What? From his right to his left hand?"
To this day that is one of the better jabs I've ever heard on anyone.
Sounds like you went on a beautiful tangent with this post. I love it when that happens.
Oh and any tangent that includes a John Cusack reference is worth mentioning, period.:)
Great post!!!
I think the same feelings effect all people regardless of gender or sexuality. There is an excitement that comes from new experiences, but there is a comfort that is fond in long-term relationships that rivals the excitement of the moment feeling.
Honor is a word that seems to have lost its meaning, but when you honor a relationship you can still have fantasies so long as you base your relationship on truth and honesty. Some "progressive couples" like to act those fantasies out. I find more stability (and fewer STDs) by keeping them in my dreams.
StD: I didn't care much for geography in school, and I still don't now.
Hmm, so dan... did you like it better up north or down south?
Here's to hoping I can actually leave a comment this time...
"High Fidelity" - one of my favorites. :)
Well said at the end: "no matter how nice it might look on the surface, it can't compare to the person we already have or the place where we already live." Very very true.
Hi All: Sorry I didn't respond before but I've been right out straight with the move and work... speaking of work blogspot.com has been blocked by my company so... that's that.
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