I'm watching a woman I dated lose her looks and it's painful to watch.
She was a little older than me. Very sweet, loving girl. We had a great relationship. Ended on good terms. One of us moved to a different city, but we still liked each other.
Now I'm running into her again, and I don't know how to treat her. She wants me, but it's like talking to a familiar stranger. I feel no rush when I see her, no butterflies in the stomach, no surge of testosterone.
What is strange when I see her isn't anything new, but what isn't there. When I look at the women I went to school with, I see the same thing happening to them. And then I look at the girls I'm dating and realize how many years I've got on them.
I'm curious if others have dealt with the grief that comes from losing a former girlfriend to the wall. It a uniquely modern problem that comes from people being in the dating market far longer than any previous generation. Because our greater culture lives in denial of the wall, almost nothing is written about it, and certainly nothing from a male perspective.
She was a little older than me. Very sweet, loving girl. We had a great relationship. Ended on good terms. One of us moved to a different city, but we still liked each other.
Now I'm running into her again, and I don't know how to treat her. She wants me, but it's like talking to a familiar stranger. I feel no rush when I see her, no butterflies in the stomach, no surge of testosterone.
What is strange when I see her isn't anything new, but what isn't there. When I look at the women I went to school with, I see the same thing happening to them. And then I look at the girls I'm dating and realize how many years I've got on them.
I'm curious if others have dealt with the grief that comes from losing a former girlfriend to the wall. It a uniquely modern problem that comes from people being in the dating market far longer than any previous generation. Because our greater culture lives in denial of the wall, almost nothing is written about it, and certainly nothing from a male perspective.
Read my work on Return of Kings here.