When I was a young man

“When I was a young man courting the girls. . . “

That line pounded through my head a few days ago. So I looked up the rest of the lyrics. The writer seemed to be pretty sure of his desirability. It was he who was doing the choosing and the courting.

Once a daughter was divorcing her doctor husband. He said to her: “I don’t see why you are leaving me, I am such a catch!” Ahh, such self confidence. He might have been a catch, but he was not a particularly good husband (though, in fairness, he was a pretty good doctor).

When I was a young man, or tall boy might be more accurate, the girls who would be more than arms length friends were not really what I found to be desirable. It wasn’t their fault.  Some were taller than my ideal, some twirled the scale a bit more than my ideal.

Then one day a girl who was short and small and cute and had beautiful auburn hair smiled at me and I was in her orbit for the next 60 years.

Then in the autumn of my life I became an old man courting the grandmothers and the great grandmothers. Different scenario. Different viewpoints, different values. What I thought would make a good girl friend when I was 16 was not even close to what I thought was a good wife at 76.

It seems that if we can laugh together, and enjoy each others company and have life values that are on the same page (not necessarily the same paragraph or sentence) there is promise.