Different View

Way back when I first set this site up I asked for feedback. Some have joined in such as Lounge Lizard Larry and Snowy and others have contacted me directly at sean@leftcoastlove.com. Some of the responses have been cleared for posting by the authors, but they wish to remain anonymous. I am starting this section for those pieces. First up ...........

I have watched Leftcoastlove and his friends bewail the lack of eligible, and of course desirable, mates to take the long walk to death with. I too once felt this pang of loneliness that accompanies the single in our world today. That glance of pity cast about by friends who have found their life mate, those less than subtle hints tossed about by midlife mothers who long for the grandchild on whom they can hang the hopes and dreams that their actual children were unable to fulfill, and the belief that without this mate one will die alone haunts the single in their dreams. Well I’m here to give you the other view, that shot of life that your momma never told you about.

First, that glance of pity from your friends has long been misinterpreted. It is not pity you see in your friend’s glance for your single days that you live in high style. Instead, it is pity because they know that eventually you will fall prey to the same 50’s ideal that they bought into of the perfect home and idyllic marriage that has been toted as the only satisfaction life has to offer. Think about it – do you really think that Carol Brady performed fallatio on Mike every night? Do you think that after Beaver went to bed Ward actually ever saw one? Do you think that Lucy plotted so many ways to get Ricky’s attention because she was having a screaming orgasm on a regular basis? No, my friend, the answer is no! There is a reason why the lights went off at night so as not to mar the perfect ideal that was paraded before our young minds to brainwash us into the path Republicans hold so dear – nobody was getting any! Who would voluntarily enter into a state of marital bliss if they knew that all of their normal, healthy sexual urges would be curtailed by job stress, car payments, student loans, kids, and enough family obligations to fill three calendars?

Second, you mothers ever-prodding hints for grandchildren are not motivated by love. Mothers above fathers long for that continuation of the family line so necessary to life. We have been taught to believe that the family name needs to be continued out of a sense of continuity with the world – a fickle attempt at immortality. However, I have come to firmly believe that it has nothing to do with the name it has to do with the job of mother. In order for a mother to be successful she needs to not only raise smart, successful children she also needs to have the grandchild on which to dote in her golden years. Without that piano covered in pictures on display for the world to gaze upon a woman of the 50’s ideal has not completed her mission. To die without that photojournalistic display of her success is to linger in purgatory for a millennium. The 50’s ideal that captured her into a life of repressed sexuality and stretch marks has given her a clear-cut finish line she must cross to claim victory – the birth of a grandchild.

Finally, death comes to us all and we all do die alone. One has but to glance at the literature of the world to appreciate this fact for its beauty instead of the fear that it tends to inspire. Death is the last adventure of life and its trail is built to be walked upon by an individual not by a couple. Death is a time of reflection and release, a moment for one to consider the flashes that entangle our mortal coil and make us each individual and precious. It is the buzz of a fly, the lifting of the shroud that covers our eyes, the smell of a sunset, and the sound of a barbaric yawp. To fear solitude at this moment would be the acknowledgment that your life never touched another and this is impossible. One has but to look into the eyes of a friend or smile at a stranger to know that their life has had a meaning. One can never be alone at death for one always has their self.

I say to Leftcoastlove and all who enjoy his dynamic prose online rejoice for tomorrow your happiness shall die. Eventually you too will be sucked into the vortex of marital bliss. Some will find a new form of happiness in the ever-swirling currents and others will be spit back into the world of the singles only to hope for another spin. Don’t be in such a hurry to dive into the vortex because the spinning, swirling tides will destroy the innocence you now enjoy.

respond to anonymous@leftcoastlove.com