Tuesday, May 18, 2004

Before The Blog

Perfection

I recently had the pleasure of attending a birthday party for one of my school mates. Even though it was during our vacation, a substantial number of our mutual friends showed up. In the course of the evening, despite the cold temperatures, some guests decided to take a dip in the pool.

Many of us did not venture outside, choosing rather to watch the proceedings from a huge bay window in the living room. A male acquaintance from school struck up a conversation as we watched. Naturally the subject matter was inspired by the scantily clad women enjoying the water. Somehow, we came to the topic of assessing the "talent" at our school. He compared it to a used car parts store. A lot of premium parts, but none amounted to the Mercedes we all aspired to. He then started to take pieces from certain girls and assemble them into a "perfect" girl. Satisfied with his creation, he deemed it worthy of "two thumbs up and a big toe." I smiled and nodded and chuckled.

I thought of the people he named and made a picture in my head. The final product was an amalgam of shades and shapes. It was an utter mess that I doubt anyone would have deemed "perfect." During the exercise, I had even named a particular attribute of one young lady only to be rebuffed because, according to his best estimations, she had no waist.

It was then that I realized that there were a number of girls I found attractive at our school. Had I been single and armed with any sort of approach, I would have tried getting to know a number of them. Pondering further, I came to the place where I identified his process as the hopes of constructing an ideal woman. I tend to see all these women as different types of perfection. Maybe my example did not possess a waist (which I think is biologically unlikely), I am sure there is no shortage of men that would label her as "banging." That goes for all the other whole girls who formed his sick creation.

Every woman is a walking piece of perfection in my eyes. Summer in the streets of New York is always a worrisome time. The probability of developing whiplash severly spikes upward due to the increase display of specimens throughout the five boroughs. The tall, the short; The thin, the chubby. In all I see perfection. While I am not attracted to all of them, I see how they are attractive and that is a quality lost on so many.

I must admit that in my more shallow days, I had an ideal candidate. The height didn't matter as long as she was at least three inches shorter than me. In my mind, this woman would have a pretty face framed my a natural hair style of some sort. She would have been of African descent, ideally with a caramel complexion. The other main attributes were south, since this dream woman would have wonderful legs and a round backside. Unlike most men, I am not crazy over the chest area, so as long as breasts were more than mere nipples and not flotation devices, I was not discriminating. The only personality traits I required were a penchant for strappy high-heeled shoes and a desire to bear my children.

Gladly, that shallowness has largely receded over time. I no longer search for that idealized construct, in part because I believe I have no need to search further, but also for the mere fact that it would eliminate so many other forms of beauty. In addition, I have also suscribed to the principle that the more you know about an individual's personality, the more yo ascribe to that person's attractiveness. For example, Jennifer Lopez doesn't look as hot once you realize how she seems to be addicted to serial monogamy. It works in the positive direction as well.

The best result of my growth process has been the fact that my ideal has crossed paths with perfection. If asked today to describe my ideal candidate, I would run off a list of characteristics that would easily produce my current girlfriend. Plus she maintains personality traits - intelligence, sense of humor to name a couple - that will keep her attractiveness even more glowing. As a bonus for me, she wants to bear my children and I think I found some strappy high-heeled shoes she might like. In my world, that's worthy of two thumbs up and a big toe.

- June 22, 2003

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