Anyone up for a chat thread?

[seeking.IAM]

Silver in the hair doesn't have to be a drawback. Beards, though..

I stopped shaving for a bit when I could not go anywhere during COVID. Since then, my wife makes a point of letting me know she doesn't want me shave off my beard. It's working for me. Looks like I am stuck with it!

 

[Paidiske]

There must be plenty of conversation stoppers in a supermarket when some strange bloke tries to make a meaningful connection when you're picking up what you need for dinner.

"What do you think of PAL dog food as an entree for a party of six? .... Got a church function on Sunday morning, confessions free if you want to cook for a hundred.... If your wife's been talking too much, i can add another 20 minutes with a sermon, or longer if you want...in my job I scare the hell out of people..."

Well, you know, it's purely hypothetical, in my case. It's a long time since anyone tried picking me up anywhere. I don't know if it's the wedding ring, the clerical collar, or the fact that I'm now 45 and not exactly model material. Maybe I'll salve my ego by telling myself that I obviously give off a don't-mess-with-me energy that puts off some of the bad behaviour one had to deal with when younger.

Look, if one likes one's beard, and one's wife likes one's beard, all is well with the world. I have clear opinions on beards, but they only matter in my household!

 

[seeking.IAM]

my wife makes a point of letting me know she doesn't want me shave off my beard. It's working for me. Looks like I am stuck with it!

Look, if one likes one's beard, and one's wife likes one's beard, all is well with the world. I have clear opinions on beards, but they only matter in my household!

She also thinks the beard lends me a certain amount of credibility like the near equivalent of a clerical collar. It is almost expected for a male psychotherapist -- an accouterment to pensively stroke during a session. Thanks, Dr. Freud.

 

[Shane R]

I'm in fact quite an introvert. As I've aged and ministered and talked to folks, I find a lot of us were aggressively pursued by our woman. That was certainly the case with me 11 years ago. In such cases we're surprised, kind of swept up in it, and it strokes our ego at the same time.

 

[Shane R]

To have a woman choose you, forcefully, out of all the many men out there is a wonderful thing.

 

[Paidiske]

I haven't had many relationships, but the majority were with people I'd already known in some way for years; a co-worker, someone who'd been part of a wider group of friends. We already knew one another well enough to have some idea of whether there was potential worth exploring. The exception was someone a friend set me up with, and that didn't work out.

 

[Shane R]

And I think for the most men she does not have to look like Melania Trump or Sydney Sweeyney; just her saying, "I choose you guy" is enough. We're a bit flummoxed and like "Okay, this woman chose me!" There's some good counseling insight in there somewhere.

 

[Bob Crowley]

The last post reminds me of a quip one of the other postmen made years ago when I was working as a postman (circa 1980).

One of the blokes asked another postie "How did you know she was the one for you?"

The post office comic gaffed, with a bit of a stutter "When she pr...pr... proposed!"