We're now into the holiday season, a season that promotes not being alone. On the November 22nd edition of CBS MORNINGS, there was a feature early in the 8:00 hour about people in the AARP category finding love again. The theme was "It's Never Too Late." Being in that category, I was interested. Most of the folks in the feature used online dating to get back into the love game.
I've been romantically unattached for a long, long time. I tried online dating a couple times and the experience taught me this: Online dating when you're well over 40 is a circle of Hell that Dante never encountered. I went out with guys I connected with via online dating and realized that the only thing we had in common was the right to trial by jury.
My first and, so far, only romantic relationship was a too-short one with a wonderful guy named Richard. We met through a mutual friend in 1992. Six months after our brief meeting, he asked me out on a date. I was quite reluctant to go with him because I thought I'd be relocating from New York to California in six months for work and because the age difference between us was exactly the same age difference between the Tom Ewell and Marilyn Monroe characters in Billy Wilder's THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH. Richard was Marilyn. We met for a Sunday brunch...and he changed my life. I no longer felt like a subject in search of a verb. We stayed together until he died 18 months later. I loved Richard and he loved me very much.
Through the years, I have been seriously interested in a few fellows. But the interest was never mutual. So, romantically, I've been a solo act ever since 1994 when Richard passed away.
Would I like to be be half of a two-some instead of a solo act, especially during the holidays? Absolutely. Which brings me to Sally Field. I saw this trailer in a TV commercial for a movie that opens in December. Maybe it's the sentimentality of the holiday season coupled with my longing to leave solo status...but this commercial put a tear in my eye. Sally Field and former CBS sitcom star, Jim Parsons, are is SPOILER ALERT.
Two men in love. A terminal illness. Sally Field plays the mother of one of the men in love.
The film's title may sound like something you'd read in a film or TV review. There's a good reason for that. The movie is based on a memoir by TV critic and journalist, Michael Ausiello. Ausiello was a frequent presence on Twitter in the pre-Musk days.
Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas. May you have someone with you who always makes you feel significant.
Hello, Bobby! Missing you out here in non-Twitter land. Thanks for sharing your bittersweet personal story. I'm reminded, however that while you may not have been partnered in all these years, from what I remember about the posts from your friends on "that site", you certainly have never been without love and friendship. Definitely something to be Thankful for as we head into the holiday season. Happy Thanksgiving, Bobby and I look forward to resuming our tweet correspondence soon. Have a great holiday! XOXO Ken
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