The Mystical and the Pragmatic

storm clouds in sky
Looking down on you from Heaven.

“My husband and your wife wanted us to be together…” – My Dad’s girlfriend on how and why she and my Dad got together.

I remember talking to my Dad a little while ago, and we got on the subject of his new girlfriend. Now by new, I mean that she and my Dad have been seeing each other for about a year now and she is the first woman that he took a shine to since my Mother died.

My Dad’s girlfriend is a year younger than my Dad, so she will be 69 in September. She’s been widowed not once, but twice. One of her husband’s died several years ago due to health complications and her last boyfriend before my Dad died from a heart attack after he had just finished shoveling snow during a winter storm a few years ago.

I joked with my Dad and told him that he needs to stay away from her since she is a “black widow” as she tends to kill the men that she is with. I don’t honestly think that she is killing the men in her life, since she isn’t receiving any sort of death benefits, especially from the last guy, but then again, I guess time will tell. Maybe she is killing them. Maybe they died to get away from her. Maybe it’s a series of unfortunate events. I tend to believe the latter.

I remember talking to my Dad, not only about her, but also about the strong possibility that there is no afterlife and therefore, there is no heaven or hell except what we make for ourselves here during our lives. He tends to agree with me. Both my Father and I aren’t “spiritual people” in the sense of believing that we have “souls” and that we go on with some form of existence after death. We’re both pretty pragmatic in that sense. Show me empirical proof of an afterlife and I’ll gladly change my mind. Until then, nah.

My Dad’s current girlfriend told him the quote that I mentioned at the beginning of this post, and from what I can tell, she firmly believes it. She honestly believes that her dead husband and my dead Mother got together wherever dead people go and decided that her and my Father needed to be together. That’s her story and she’s sticking to it.

I find it funny, not only because I don’t believe in all of that stuff, but also because I do believe in the power of proximity and “social game.” One of the things that my Dad’s current girlfriend tends to overlook or completely ignore is that they both run in the same social circles. They both share the same circle of friends and everyone there knows everybody else. All of their mutual friends practically pushed the two of them together, and why not? They are both single, they are both in reasonably good shape and health, and they both share a lot of the same values and goals. They have a lot of the same interests and have many things in common.

To me, it’s a no-brainer. He’s looking for company, she’s looking for company, they both like the same shit, why not? While it’s not the life I would choose for myself, he likes her, she likes him and they both like doing a lot of the same things together, so go for it.

It’s funny to me that women in general tend to put so many things in life out to “fate,” “God,” “the Universe,” and even “Karma.” It’s funny to me because if they only knew. If they only knew that I planned the date down to some of the most minute details and the only truly random variable was which woman was going to show up. Will it be this woman? Or will it be a different woman? Either way I’m going to go here, eat this, drink that, go see this, and then ultimately go do that.

Then again, maybe they do know, and they just don’t want to actually “see it” and admit to it. And why would they? Once you’ve seen how the magic trick is done and you realize just how simple it really is, all of the magic is gone.

Rian Stone had a great answer to a question on Twitter a little while ago. The question was: “Men, what’s one of the ways in your realm where she can earn sex with you?”

Rian answered: “Be available.”

Beautiful, simple, and to the point.

It’s not much different from “the other side” as well. A lot of guys talk about their game and how they dress and how they look and their wealth and what interesting and cool lines they used on a woman.

What if most of the time it was because you were the “right guy at the right place at the right time” though? It honestly didn’t have much to do with you except that you were there, you were available, and you didn’t step on your own dick?

Guys, let’s be honest with ourselves. We aren’t the Casnova’s that we think we are and that we want women and other men to believe us to be. We ain’t shit, and that’s okay.

We are opportunists.

We learn to recognize that she’s interested and we ideally strike while the iron is hot. We learn to give her the show without revealing the man behind the curtain. And ultimately we learn how to do this while keeping our fucking mouths shut so that we don’t give her a reason to not fuck us.

So when you are out with a woman and she’s waxing poetically about the sun and the stars aligning and that it was the Universe that brought you two together, you know in your own mind, that no, it wasn’t Karma. It was you setting the stage and dealing with the details and the logistics. All she needed to do was show up.

But you tell her with a twinkle in your eye, “I know right?! We were meant to be. It was fate.”

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What Online Dating Body Types Mean in 2020

three women s doing exercises
This is “Thin” or “Athletic.”

I wrote a post about an experience I had with a friend of mine while at a couple of bars, and today I want to expand on that with some other observations and information.

The last time that I had seriously done “the bar thing” was over 20 years ago. Probably closer to 23 years ago. I started going back to the bar in late 2019/early 2020 before the pandemic hit and put that on pause. The bar I would go to had an eclectic mix of people and a wide demographic of ages.

Everything from the early 20-somethings up to the early to mid 60-somethings if I had to guess, was there. I’ll be honest and say right now that guessing someone’s age has never been my biggest strength. So there was roughly an equal ratio of men to women and the age groups were pretty much all represented at this particular bar.

The last bar that I went to though, the age demographic was almost entirely the early to mid 20-somethings. There might have been a few in their late 20’s and a very, very small handful of people in their early 30’s. Definitely what you would call the “college crowd.” And then there was me and my buddy, the two “old” guys in the bar.

I’ll be honest when I say I was a little hesitant to going to this particular bar. My buddy told me about it as he had been there a few times before and he really enjoyed it. “Lot’s of eye candy” as he put it. I was hesitant because I remember what it was like being in my mid 20’s and there was always “that one creepy old guy in the bar.” Everybody would look at him and roll their eyes and wrinkle their noses up at him. Girls would laugh and not in a good way. That guy was tolerated at best and pitied and avoided at worst. I definitely did not want to be “that guy.”

As things would have it though, I didn’t have to worry about it. Everyone was very friendly with me. I can see why for some of it. The bar was happy for the patronage and when you’re the “new guy” everybody is interested in you to one degree or another. Whether it’s intrasexual competition from the other guys in the bar, or it’s the possibility of an encounter with the women, you’re being sized up. Especially when you’re new.

Nobody had an issue with my buddy and me being there and honestly I didn’t care. Being comfortable in your own skin will do that. A couple of beers doesn’t hurt either.

So here’s what I’ve observed and don’t worry, I’m going to take these observations and apply them to online dating because they are applicable:

  1. Men and women as a whole are fatter now than 20 years ago. Applying this to online dating means that the category of “Average” today isn’t what “Average” of yesterday was. Average from 20 years ago meant that you were neither thin or fat. You were just, average. Kind of like Goldilocks and the Three Bears: Not too hot, not too cold, but just right. Average from yesterday doesn’t exist today, not anymore. Average today means you are fat. You may not be obese or morbidly obese, but you are fat. Think 20 pounds plus. There literally wasn’t any women that were like 5 pounds overweight. They were either thin (which I’ll get to next) or they were 20+ overweight.
  2. Thin women still exist. Most of the guys were thinner and in better shape than the women as well, compared to 20 years ago. Thank god for thin women since this happens to be my personal preference. There were plenty of skinny girls there, plenty of “eye candy” for me to see. I’ve seen plenty of women that would describe themselves as thin in online dating as well, they just aren’t the majority anymore.
  3. Athletic as a type definitely exists. I would consider it a “sub-category” to thin. The only major difference to me at least, is that athletic women tend to have more muscle definition and tend to be more toned. Otherwise they are thin, hence the “sub-category” classification.
  4. Lots and lots of tattoos on everybody for the most part. I have a lot of tattoos but the younger crowd is either giving me a run for my money or they have me beat hands down. Nothing wrong with this per se, just an observation. The women and the men who had no visible tattoos tended to stand out, that’s how many people have tattoos in the bar today.

I made a tweet a few days ago that has summed up my experience when it comes to online dating and “body types” or “body descriptions:”

Average = Fat

A Few Extra Pounds = Fat

Curvy = Really Fat

BBW = Really Fat with an extra dose of attitude

Thin = Thin (but only if there is a fully body shot, otherwise = Fat)

Athletic (see Thin)

This may be hilarious to some degree, but it’s true unfortunately. I’ve encountered far too many women who say they are “average” when it comes to their body type and I have to admit that it’s my fault for not actually seeing them that way. That’s because I was holding on to what “average” was 20 years ago. Average today is overweight. Curvy used to be what Madonna was back when she did “Lucky Star.” Think hourglass. Curvy today is obese. A few extra pounds 20 years ago, was a tiny bit of a tummy. A few extra pounds today is 20 pounds overweight. Not obese and definitely not morbidly obese, but definitely pushing into obese territory.

The one that I have the most conflict with today is Athletic. Athletic to me and probably to most guys is a person who has low body fat and has muscle definition and tone. I’ve seen women who say they are “athletic” and sure they are in a selfie pic at some gym somewhere, wearing a yoga top and yoga pants, but they are far from having an athletic body. A muffin top body isn’t athletic. Nor should counting that one time you went hiking over a year ago count as athletic. That’s why I say, full body shots in the pictures or they are fat.

I’m not saying any of this as a condemnation of women being overweight. I’ve dated plenty of women over the years who genuinely were “a few extra pounds.” There’s nothing inherently wrong with that. But “a few extra pounds” was just that. 5 or 10 extra pounds at the most.

If we are going to keep the body types “honest” with today’s standards and averages, there should be only 2 choices with one possible sub-category:

Thin or fat. There’s no need to have an “average” category anymore since “average” as it once was doesn’t exist. The sub-category would be “athletic” and that would only be applicable if you were actually “thin” first.

There’s no need for a “curvy,” “a few extra pounds,” or “BBW” anymore, since it’s all basically just one degree of fat or another. Actually, I’ll take that back. There should still be a BBW category. That’s because most of the women that I have encountered that identify as “BBW” also tend to be the most entitled and have the most bitter of attitudes. At least the bigger girls who didn’t consider themselves to be BBW had more pleasant demeanors and personalities.

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The Ultimate Goal

Screenshot_20200728-090239 (2)

“Is the ultimate goal of an older man to get so set in his life that there’s nothing consequential a woman can add to his lifestyle except herself?” – Dr. Lucas Bly

YES.

I saw a tweet the other day and it got me to thinking. When I was younger, back in my 20’s and even through my 30’s and into my very early 40’s, I always thought that I needed or even wanted a woman to be able to somehow “contribute” to my lifestyle. I wanted her to be able to “bring something to the relationship,” something that I either needed or wanted. Something that I was lacking.

Let me tell you right now, that way leads to disappointment and potentially to misery. Women are a compliment to your life, as Rollo is fond of saying, and I agree. You need to “have a life” though and your life itself can’t be about her.

I don’t mean that you can’t have women in your life and that if you do, the only thing that they will be able to offer is sex. You can and you will, if you put yourself out there, find women who have more to offer than just sex. But you need to “have a life” first. A life that regardless if she is in it or not, you are good. You are good with your life and where and how it is going. She has nothing to do with that.

Sometimes the most consequential thing a woman can bring to a man’s life is nothing more than herself. This isn’t pedestalization, this is simply man and woman dynamics at play. It doesn’t make her a princess or a special snowflake, but when she is in your life, for however long she is in your life, she adds to it. There is more being brought in than if she wasn’t there. But at the same time, you are good without her being there.

Part of my lifestyle is that I have my finances in order. That doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m completely debt free, because I’m not, but it does mean that whether there is  a woman, or more than one woman in my life, my finances will not suffer. I do not rely on her to pay any of my bills. I do not need her as a roommate to contribute to my mortgage. If I’m involved with women, my debts aren’t hers and vice versa. She gets to figure out how she is going to get herself out of the hole she has dug for herself. Her debts are not my problem.

My life is in order so whether women show up, leave, stick around, flake, ghost, or do anything else, I’m good. They can be in my company and we’ll have a great time for as long as that lasts, or she can go and do something else with somebody else. Either way I’m good.

Getting “set in life” doesn’t mean that you have become crystallized and are an immovable block of granite with no room to grow and to change or to enjoy things with a woman, or to enjoy her herself. It doesn’t mean that you don’t feel anything either. It just means that you have most if not all of your affairs in order and that no matter what happens, no matter who comes into your life, and no matter who leaves your life, you will ultimately be okay.

Living this way is not only reassuring to me, which is the most important reason for doing it, but it takes pressure off of her as well. You don’t need her for anything, so you don’t have an air of desperation about you. There are no covert contracts going on. In many ways, you can “just be yourself.”

I’ve played house twice in my life so far. The first time was my marriage, which lasted for a total of seven years, and the second time was a long term, live-in girlfriend which lasted for about four years. Both times I had the basic finances covered. The house and the mortgage are both in my name and my name alone. I make enough money to pay that and all of my utilities plus a few luxury expenditures as well as leaving enough behind to save up for a rainy day. Anything monetarily that I woman brings to me as far as our relationship goes, is gravy. I’m willing to let her spend money on me, but I don’t need her to and I’ve never become dependent on a woman for that.

I figured that one out for myself back in my mid-thirties, so it’s been over a decade that I’ve been living with that “blueprint.” It has not steered me wrong. I’ve had a bunch of casual and short term relationships as well as the two longest relationships of my life under the same roof, and when all of those relationships ended for one reason or another, I’ve come out fine in the end.

When I love women, I love them hard. I go all in. I don’t hold anything back. I guess that is the romantic in me, or the somewhat artistic side of me coming out. That doesn’t mean that I lose my mind and start doing stupid shit, but that also doesn’t mean that I need them or that I’m going to do something as foolish as take on their debt or sign up for more debt with them. Loving them hard and my fiscal decisions about my own life have nothing to do with each other. They are two completely seperate categories and as far as I’m concerned, they are mutually exclusive. I can love deeply, feel things profoundly, and I can also say that my life is in order enough and intact enough that if and/or when she leaves, I’ll be just fine.

So to answer that question that was asked, “Is the ultimate goal of an older man to get so set in his life that there’s nothing consequential a woman can add to his lifestyle except herself?

The answer is yes.

There is ideally nothing consequential that a woman can bring to my lifestyle except herself, and honestly, that’s enough for me. That’s why I happen to like women and I keep going after them.

It’s more than enough.

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