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[Mme. Defarge]

Last edited Thu Nov 23, 2017, 12:49 AM - Edit history (2)

[Sailor65x1]

1. Wow!!

You're 700 years old? How do you do it? You know there can be only one, right??

[True Dough]

4. You beat me to it, Sailor!

I was still typing while you were posting your response! Same observation though.

[Mme. Defarge]

9. Holy crap, what can I say?

Wine, and, so, I was born in 1317. And, yes, it was a different era, deal with it!

[True Dough]

2. Mme. Defarge

I am glad to hear you have met men noble men in your life.

I must also point out that even though I only know you "virtually" (through the DU), you are the oldest human being I have ever interacted with, seeing as you are entering your 70th decade!

[Xipe Totec]

3. Thank you, to you, and all the women who've made my stay in this world so pleasant nt

[PJMcK]

5. Great observations!

Thanks for your evenhandedness, Madame.

And just for the record, I bet you don't look a day over 690!

Cheers to you and your sweetheart.

[TheCowsCameHome]

6. Thank you for the kind words, and...

...I hope I won't offend you if I say you don't look a day over 550.

Cheers.

[sl8]

7. What a warm and wise post. Thank you.

[Skittles]

8. I'VE HAD IT WITH MEN

liked it too

[Mme. Defarge]

10. Edited for mathematical correctness.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. My very best friend in the whole world is a man

whom I first met some 45 years ago when we worked together. At first I thought he was a bit strange, and I wouldn't be surprised if he thought the same of me. But we learned we had things in common, and because we lived only a couple of blocks apart and worked the same shift, we fell into the habit of going out for coffee after work.

Never had a romantic relationship. After we'd known each other for a few years I realized that if I ever did meet a man I wanted to marry, he'd have to understand my relationship with this guy, because I wasn't going to abandon that friendship. Fortunately, when I did meet the man I wound up marrying, the two of them got along great and are still in touch, even though my marriage ended about a decade ago.

Now that he and I are both retired we speak every single day on the phone.

Okay, so he's been known to make comments that I've called him to task on, but those are mainly leftovers from an earlier era. Plus, they are not directed to me as harassing comments. I honestly think he makes at least some of them because he feels so comfortable with me, that I'm "one of the guys" so to speak.

But I've also seen him in situations where he's been sensitive and supportive of women. The best story is this, and even though I wasn't there I know him well enough to know it's true. He'd taken a bus late at night into the District of Columbia. He was going to walk to his final destination, but he saw a young woman who'd gotten off the same bus and was then waiting for another bus. This was not a good part of town, at least not then. So he approached her and said something like, "Excuse me, miss. I don't want to be intrusive, but I don't think you realize that this is a bad part of the city. If you wouldn't mind, let me stay here with you until your next bus comes along." She agreed, and he did. The bus came, he saw her on board, and went his way.

That's what a man does for a woman. It's not hard. We all just need to treat each other with dignity and respect, and perhaps with the same concern we'd give to our actual brother or sister.

[Mme. Defarge]

13. Merci, ma belle.

Indeed a beautiful story and example. Lucky you.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

17. I am lucky. And I know that.

It may help that I was not pretty when I was young. I didn't have any boyfriends in high school. I was smart, got good grades, was in Honor Society, and even got a couple of academic scholarships to college. It also helped a lot that my own mother wasn't very traditional herself, and I was her least favorite child. So I always had to make my own way in the world. When I was getting married, she had zero interest in helping me plan the wedding, so we switched the venue from her city to my in-laws' city.

In large part because I didn't define myself by the males in my life, but instead by my own accomplishments, I didn't fall into some of the traps women, especially women my age and I'm an early Boomer, fell into.

Somehow I figured out that friendship mattered a lot. And by the time I met the friend I described above, I knew that anyone I might marry I needed to be friends with first. And my husband was my friend. The marriage lasted some 25 years, and then he met someone else he decided he'd rather be with. Dammit! But those things happen, and I work on remembering our two sons and the good years we had together.

Recently I met a man that I thought I might establish a romantic relationship with. I quickly realized that it wasn't a good idea. Basically, and the details truly aren't important, we're too different. Plus, and this may be more important, I think that at this point in my life I'm genuinely happy being single, living alone. I have friends and I have a good life. I don't need to be part of a couple

All of this is a bit personal, but I'm willing to share.

[brush]

12. Most men are good people, some are not. The bad ones have us all in the hot seat now. It's a...

catharsis.

[Honeycombe8]

14. Well, I haven't been so lucky.

I have known a few "good guys," as you call them. But friends? I'm not sure, but I don't think so. My experience has for the most part been like Harry's view in When Harry Met Sally.

Still, I've known a few good guys. And the men in my family seem to like women okay. That may be because there are so many females in the family that they came to see females as people? I've had a couple of gay male friends, but I suppose that's different.

[Mme. Defarge]

15. Gay males

are males. I would say they count as male friends.

[Honeycombe8]

18. You didn't watch the video, did you? nt

[tblue37]

16. Not to harsh your mellow, but if you just turned 70, you are entering your 8th decade.

At 67 I am near the end of my 7th decade.